One step forward, three steps back.

First, the lighter stuff...


The more I get accomplished, the worse things look around here.

I've been decluttering, but I don't really think you can tell it. People don't normally look inside closets. At least, they better not.


I've been making it a point to systematically declutter this house. I cleared out under the main bathroom's sink, the linen closet, the playroom (which needs to have shelves hung so I can finish), and next will be Garrett's room. Ugh, just the thought of that makes me tired.

The sucksuck part of all of this is that despite the clutter cleanup, I still have to keep up with the everyday stuff. It is daunting, y'all. It really is. I'm much too lazy for this crap.


And now, the not-so-light stuff...

My mom, the lovely person that she is, decided to piss me off the other day.


She got Garrett all excited about going to see a movie with her, Joshua, and I.
We were supposed to go on Saturday, but something happened and Mom had to reschedule for Sunday afternoon.

Garrett was a little let down, but he instead began looking forward to going Sunday.

Well, I talked to mom at one p.m. on Sunday afternoon, when she got home from church. I told her the movie started at 4:20 pm and she was still gung-ho about it. We agreed that she would be here by 3:45pm and would ride w/us to the theater.


The whole time we waited, Garrett would ask what time it was and how much longer we had to wait. I'm tellin' y'all, he asked EVERY. FIVE. MINUTES.

Give a mama a break, son.


Ok, so 3:45 rolls around and the phone rings. I answered it before I looked at the caller ID and it was Mom. I asked where she was, and she nonchalantly replied that she was at home.

WHAT?!?!

I asked her why she was still home, and I could tell she was eating. She said, "Well, I had to feed my family."
I mentioned the fact that she had told Garrett and I that we were going out to the movies and asked her why she would do that to him.
"I don't have any money, " she replied.

I told her that I was going to pay for it.

She said she just wasn't going.

I was simmering by then and told her to tell Garrett that she had decided not to go and handed the phone to him.
OK, Garrett is six years old and just got stood up by his grandmother. Do you THINK he'd be polite and respectful? He had every right NOT to be, but he still had the innocent 'ma-ma, why aren't you coming' tone to his voice.
Mom then started accusing him of "Being Ugly." That's southern slang for mouthing off for those who don't know. She also asked him why don't we just come over there instead.
He said, "Ma-ma, I'm not being ugly. I don't want to come to your house, we are supposed to go to the movies."
Mom replied that he sounded like he was being ugly.
By then, I'm boiling.


I took the phone out of his hand and said that he wasn't "Being Ugly" and that I would take him to the movies myself, thankyouverymuch. I then hung up.

Fast forward to today.
Mom calls and starts chatting away like nothing ever happened. I stopped the bullshit by telling her, "Mom, I have to tell you, I'm still upset about yesterday."

She said, "I know."

"First, you flake out on us without warning and then you accuse him of talking smack to you?"


She insisted that he WAS using an inappropriate tone of voice to her and I cut her off. I said, "You STOOD HIM UP, and you expect him to be polite and kiss your ass?"

That's when she said she wasn't going to talk about that anymore and we hung up on each other.

Ok, if I didn't already have bad memories of Mom breaking promises to me when I was growing up, I wouldn't be so angry. Mom is a good person, but she does have her faults. She made LOTS of promises that she didn't keep and didn't seem to care about who she let down. You don't make promises to a child and not try your hardest to keep them.
Why didn't she just TELL US when she got home from church that she was too tired to go out again? Why did she let us wait, get his hopes up, and then act like it wasn't a big deal?

It was a very big deal to Garrett. He was excited about it and Mom got mad because he was unhappy about being stood up.

From now on, I'm going to do my best to make sure she doesn't invite him to anything or promise him anything. She has a history of not coming through and I don't want him to think that he can't count on her.


I don't know what I'm asking for. I just really want her to see that she hurt his feelings by flaking out on him. It isn't OK for her to do that to him. What do you think?