The great sweatpants debacle

Last Wednesday, I spent the entire day walking around with my pants on backwards.

(I'll give you a second to gain control of your laughter.)

What the mailman looked like when he saw
 me and my pants walk out the front door.
Image courtesy of
bk images / Freedigitalphotos.net

Okay now?

So, yes. My pants were on backwards--as in the front was in the back (and the back was in the front, of course). In my defense, though, they were sweatpants with no back pockets (I guess the tag wasn't a clue), I got dressed in the dark (Well, with my eyes shut, but it was early), and I'm a mom, and what mom has time to pay attention to her clothes when the oatmeal is boiling over and one kid is crying and the other kid is kickboxing the wall and she's just realized that there's no milk for breakfast....

Yes, I know. Excuses. Never mind. I'll just own it:

I wore my pants backwards. All day. I noticed about a half-hour before my husband came home from work.

Now, I have to give my husband credit. When he walked into the house that night and I told him what I'd done, he didn't laugh. No, not at all.

His response?

"At least you know where you've been."

(Yeah, it's a laugh riot at our house.)

Still, as I thought more about this latest in a long line of embarrassing moments (Oh, yes, I have quite the string of them. Hard to imagine, huh?) and my husband's response to it, I had a bit of an epiphany (if it's possible to have a "bit"--maybe it was more of an epiph). I thought (and I'm being serious now) that maybe--just maybe--the great sweatpants debacle was a sign that I need to slow down and take more time for myself.

Huh. That one made me stop and think. And also change my mind: it wasn't an epiph; it was definitely an epiphany.

Really, we parents have a lot on our plates, and sometimes we forget that we need to take time for ourselves, too. When we have children, the center of our world changes, and we rush around doing everything for everyone, sometimes neglecting our own needs.

We run errands, bring our kids to school, drop off library books, grocery shop, cook meals, do laundry, think up last-minute science projects, look for things that everyone else has lost ("Where's my sock monkey?" is a common lament here), change diapers, referee fights, perform minor surgeries, fill (and refill) sippy cups, scrape Play-Doh off the rug, give baths, potty train... Whew!

Now I'm not in any way trying to diminish the parenting roles we play--they are worthwhile and important--but what I am saying is that we do a lot for others, and maybe we should try to be better about taking a little time for ourselves every once in a while as well: time to breathe, to take part in hobbies, to relax, to call a friend, to sit down with a cup of tea and a good book, and yes, time to make sure we don't have our pants on backwards before we rush out the door.

Because it's not fun to go out in public that way.

Ask me how I know.