BAD MOMMY

Sorry for this delinquent post.  But, better late than never?

I got the "bad mommy" award this Halloween.  Let's start with the fact that one of my busiest months at work is October, then add to that psyciatrists/therapists/a broken-down vehicle and a routine that thus requires me to drive about an hour and a half for both pick up and drop-off routines.....well, there you have it - not enough time to make cute, homemade costumes.  So, Sunday night, the 30th, after a fourteen-hour work day, and a dinner I somehow don't remember (bet it was on the order of a can of mushroom soup mixed with a can of tuna), I hobbled out to the car with Zhen to go "get" his costume.  For some reason his glee in picking a new costume each year is so intense, that I just couldn't do the reasonable thing and direct him to the costume boxes in the basement.  For one thing, he actually plays with those costumes all year, on and off, so I can see how they don't have the excitement that a "Halloween Costume" should have.

At Meijers - "yahoo!" I thought - all Halloween stuff was 50% off.  But, as it turned out there was nothing there.  Really - nothing.

On we went to Target.  The Halloween stuff was in the far back corner.  As we are hitting the point where we could just see it in the distance, over the intercom I hear "The store will be closing in five minutes."  

I gave Zhen a little push ' "Run!"   And, I'll say this - Zhen is a power shopper.  He picked these items [no 50% off, unfortunately] within the five minutes and we scurried up to the check-out in the nick of time. 

And, I didn't even have to mention expense.  I was delighted that Zhen seemed to be shopping to a budget. 

The big boys, not wanting to appear to "care" (boy,its hard to be a teenager) did grab old costume bits and the three of them went out with a neighbor boy trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood. 

Tradition has long been for us to go to one of my friends' houses and, after a pizza dinner, for she and I to walk the kids around her (more extensively savory) neighborhood.  Too bad for me.   I guess we've come to the point in Halloween where the parents are no longer necessary.  Oh - not so fast.  I was necessary!  I needed to drive Anastasia to a bonfire party in Okemos - the furthest city that could be considered not actually out in the country.   After that I went alone to my friend's house.  Her daughter, meanwhile, a diligent high school student (very unlike my own) was not trick-or-treating, or even handing out treats.....but working on a paper.  So, Marianne and I did our usual thing, and went to some other friends' house for coffee, pumpkin bread and apples, and conversation......before I had to drive all the way back to Okemos to pick up Anastasia. 

What I saved on the costume, I think, I expended in gas money.  But, I graduated sort-of painlessly to the next level of being a Halloween parent.  (Does make me consider foster care,though - life is just so much more fun with little kids.)