His Way (or, "Stay in Your Own Damn Lane, Mom")

 Lately I can't seem to hit a snag without going into a spiral. 

I realized as I was running kids to where they needed to go that I whiffed not once, but twice on two completely different things that needed to get done. The second was a good 48 hours since I missed that appointment. 

The other one was indoor last night, where we were so intent on getting cars and elder where they needed to go that we completely forgot younger, who had indoor percussion.  Who said at 8:30 as we were all finally sitting down to dinner, "I guess no indoor tonight."

Only my dinner plate prevented me from doing a *headdesk*. And then commenced a whole downward spiral wherein I started tearing myself up for all my failings with both kids, and now I can't remember anything unless I leave myself a trail of Post It notes.

So hubby, ever the master at intervening in one of these episodes, gave me a stern talking to this morning. 

Totally well meant. I picked up what he laid down. 

So I made a list of things I needed elder to do today.  He himself whiffed on an appointment yesterday, so he also had some making up to do. We sat together at the dining room table with his laptop and phone and started knocking some of the easier stuff out together. 

Actually, he knocked it out; I sat by and made sure he did it. 

Which is really all he needed all along. I was knocking out some of my own to-dos alongside him as he made up his missed appointment. He did one thing, though, that I am particularly happy with: one of his workmates asked for someone to sub for them tonight. For the first time, with a little prompting from me, he volunteered to pick up some hours. So that's where he is right now. 

And it's occurred to me that maybe he has his own ideas of what his life needs to look like, and maybe he has his own roadmap to get there. 

So I am going to continue to carve some time out of my day to sit with him to make sure he gets the homework done. We all have our nonpreferred activities, and sometimes we need a little company while we're doing them.