Day 23

You know how some cartoons show people with two shoulder angels? They have a goody on one side who tells them the right thing to do, and a baddy on the other side who tries to convince them to do the wrong thing. Well, my shoulder angels have been locked in battle this last few weeks, but I think the good angel may have just gotten a pretty decent boost to his (her?) forces. Although Harvey has been doing his best lately to help the bad-angel pull a Pearl Harbour on my List... now Finn has entered the war.

My little 'pocket conscience' has been by turns encouraging me and chastising me, and I gotta say, the kid really knows where to stick the pins in to make me squirm. He can be super sweet at times - the other day while I was putting on my make-up, he came strolling in to my bedroom, stopped in his tracks and said 'Woahhh. Mum, I just want to encourage you; you look SO beautiful in that skirt'. Talk about the warm fuzzes. I felt like a million bucks walking out the door to work - even if the comment came from someone who thinks that Lightning McQueen underwear teamed with a Toy Story T-shirt, grey tracksuit pants and blue and brown dinosaur gumboots is the absolute height of good taste. My boy say I look good, I walk three inches taller.

But - I can be deflated just as easily. Tonight while setting out on a short car-trip to pick Dave up, this was how the conversation went:

Finn (completely out of the blue): "Now, Mum, when Daddy gets in the car, you don't speak rudely to him alright?"

Me: "Why would I speak rudely to him, mate?"

Finn: "Because sometimes when we go in the car, you just speak rudely to Daddy."

Me: "When?"

Finn: "Just lots of times, you speak to Daddy in a cranky voice. Daddy doesn't speak in a rude voice, but sometimes you just speak rudely to Daddy."

Me: "What do you mean rudely, what things do I say?"

Finn: "You just shout and say naughty things."

Me (feeling a little defensive): "What naughty things?"

Finn: "Naughty things like a baddy would say."

Me (meek): "Oh."

Harvey: "Dad dad. DAD DAD DAD DAD."

Finn (in his patient, teaching-the-baby voice): "No Harvey, Dad-dad just never speaks like a baddy. Only Mummy. Mum, when Daddy gets in the car, I'm gonna remind you not to speak rudely to him okay?"

Me (thinking about all the times lately I've directed heated comments, or vented quite viciously to Dave in the car, thinking the kids were off in la-la land): "Okay, buddy."

***

A few minutes later, Dave hops in the car.

Finn: "Now, Mum, remember what we talked about."

Dave: "What?"

Me: "Did you set this up with him?"

So my good angel just got back-up. There will be no more talking rudely in the car from me! Considering I rouse on Finn for back-answering or saying horrible things about people, I guess it's only fair. Harvey, on the other hand, drives me to chocolate in excess. Last night thanks to his late-night shenanigans, I went to bed without brushing teeth or washing face. My cute little bad angel would rather me hang out in his room and cuddle him. :)

M xx