Showdown

What happens when you mix extensive work travel and exhaustion with an attack at your parenting?  Answer - nothing good...ever. 

After two weeks of travel, I am on my last leg connection in the Phoenix airport. When I land I have a message from the Pre-school Director - we shall call her P.A.B. - for Passive Aggressive....fill in your own "B" word.  The message is asking whether they can give my son a banana, because he is starving and I apparently had stopped packing him enough food.  Ok...let's investigate.

As I sit in an airport grab-and-go place, sipping on some soup, because after 6 hours of flying in coach, I am famished,  I call her back - only to be told that the feeding schedule I have specifically set up and require was no longer going to be adhered to.  Apparently my kid is watching other kids eat all day, and that's a problem.  I'm sorry - "No", I simply respond.

And then, all hell breaks loose.  Accusations start flying of me not providing my kid with proper nourishment, cuz ya, at 26-pounds at 11 months and wearing 18-24 month clothing- clearly he is withering away.  I start getting super condensing about their inability to follow a simple plan, and the financials of the whole situation - and now shit has gotten heated. 

Next thing I know, I am standing at a window at an adjacent gate, screaming about the audacity they have to challenge my parenting, and how dare they change my very important schedule because they want to entertain my kid with food.  It got ugly - and I am pretty sure most of the 6:15 pm flight from PHX to SNA heard about it.

via GIPHY

Now, I want to make sure that I make something perfectly clear - I - in every fiber of my being, am more than greatful - in fact, I am indebted to the women that care for my children all day.  They are on the front lines, and I can't even imagine what it must be like to have 10 babies in a room at once - I would go postal, seriously.  This isn't about them.  This is about someone attacking my parenting when I am running on 3 hours sleep and airport food.  Homey don't play that.

Here's the thing, I do not think it is too much to ask to require the people you pay to care for your kids, to stick to a schedule that you have in place for a reason. I get it, it's not the same as the other kids, but that shit just ain't my problem.  My son eats four times a day, two times while at school - it's his routine, and it keeps him healthy, happy and sleeping well.  That's all they should worry about.  Let me know he needs more food and maybe a different mix of nutrition - sure - I'm on it.  Tell me I am starving my kid and you got yourself a brawl.

P.A.B. and I do not speak now.  We glance at each other and barely nod - we have an unspoken law of the west between us now. Could she kick my son out of school and ask us not to come back?  Sure.  Would I be hurt?  Nope.  I will go to jail any day for defending my right to know what is best for my child - I'm the Mommy bitches - rest of you be damned.

Mic Drop.