X-tra Kids, Carrie, Dinner with Ex's. Yup ... 'bout sums up Mother's Day!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all my Mom friends!!! Hope you were all spoiled rotten!

This was definitely an odd Mother's Day for me this year.

Saturday night, Alec finally had his birthday party. We had to postpone it until last weekend since he wanted to have a sleep over, and we were at the Wrestling Event the previous weekend (the week of his actual birthday).

So Saturday night Adam was shipped off to his father's for the night (he came home again around 10:30pm), and 'The Boys' arrived around 5:30pm. They had a ball. Pizza, juice, popcorn, Alien vs Predator, YouTube and a PS2 kept them occupied all night :-) I herded them all off to Alec's room around 11 and by midnight ... silence and sleep had claimed them :-)

The next morning, Mother's Day, I woke up to EXTRA kids :-) No breakfast in bed this year!

I had told them the night before that if they woke up at some ungodly hour - ie BEFORE 8am - that there was cereal on the table, milk in the fridge, help themselves and I'd do the toast and fruit when I got up at 8. Normally, when I have my boys on the weekend, we'll do the BIG breakfast. Eggs, bacon/ham, toast, fruit etc. With that many boys at my table on Mother's Day ... Fruit Loops it was!!!

They all left fairly early though. Last one was gone just before 11am. A&A went downstairs and were being very quiet, and since my back was still really sore after having seized up a couple of days before, (yeah, two days flat on my back in bed ... and not in a GOOD way!), I said to myself "Self ... it's Mother's Day ... boys are being quiet ... your back is killing you, go lay down for awhile." And I did!

I watched The Sopranos. I've never watched The Sopranos before. I LIKED it!!!

Adam came up to my room to see what I was doing just before the end of the show and crawled into bed with me. No sooner did he get 'comfy', then a movie started. We decided to see what it was.

Turned out it was the 1976 thriller Carrie. Yup. The old Stephen King horror flick.

Now, normally I'm not one to promote 'scary' or 'adult' movies with the boys. Yes, Alien vs Predator is scary, and 'adult', but the only reason Alec was allowed to get/see it was because of the 'sleepover'. What's a sleepover without a scary movie?!?!?!?!? And as it was, they turned it off after about 20 minutes and watched it the next morning anyway LOL.

When Carrie came on however, I called for Alec to come upstairs. I thought it was 'strange' that this movie was on, considering he and I had just been discussing that very topic the week before. We were talking about books, and I told him I could still remember the first SCARY book I had read. It was Carrie. When I was 12, his age. I've been a Stephen King junkie ever since!

Given they've seen movies like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, I didn't think that Carrie would be overly 'scary' for them. Also, it was on A&E so any nudity and swearing had been taken out.

So, my boys and I snuggled up in my bed and all watched Carrie together for Mother's Day LOL.

Now, before y'all pick up your phones and call Social Services on me for being an awful mother who encourages horror flicks, let me first say that this movie brought about TONS of discussion! Which in my opinion, is always a GOOD thing.

We discussed Periods within the first 10 minutes. - If you remember the first scene in the movie, Carrie is in the shower after gym class, and has her first period. She doesn't know what is happening to her, and she's scared. Of course when he saw the blood on her hands, Adam asked "What's wrong with her Mom?" So we had the Period discussion. They now appreciate the fact they're boys! ;-)

We discussed Bullies and the destruction they cause in people's lives. For me, Bullying is a main premise of this movie. That and telekinesis. We discussed how Carrie was the way she was - shy, an outcast - partly because she had been bullied by her classmates her whole life. We discussed how this can hurt people to the point that they want to hurt back. I also brought up the Columbine incident again to drive this 'bullying point' home.

We discussed Telekinesis. What it is - as best I could explain it anyway - and how yes, there really ARE some people in the world who can supposedly move things with their mind. We all agreed that we'd all love to have telekinetic powers. To use for good of course ;-) Telekinesis comes in a close second to the power of invisibility though ;-)

And we discussed Child Abuse. This was a bit of a heart wrencher for me. There was only ONE part of the movie that bothered Adam. And this was it. The Mother's abuse of Carrie. The scene where Carrie came home from school after the shower episode, and her Mother confronted her about 'being a sinner' because of what had happened. When Carrie refused to say what her Mother wanted her to say, she hit her repeatedly in the face with a Bible, and then locked her in a closet.

At this point, I looked over at Adam who was curled in next to me, and saw his little bottom lip was quivering, and his eyes were filled with tears he was fighting so hard to control. I asked "Are you OK Babe?", and he looked at me, one tear spilling over and down his cheek and whispered "There really ARE bad Mom's like that out there who hit their kids aren't there Mom?"

My heart broke at his obvious pain and the empathy he was feeling for this poor girl in the movie, but I didn't lie to him. I simply put my arm around him, gave him a squeeze, a kiss to his temple and said "Yes Babe, there ARE some nasty parents out there".

He replied with, "There are Moms who badly hurt their kids aren't there?"

I said "Yes Hun, there are".

He then asked, "There are Moms out there who lock their kids in closets when they don't listen ... aren't there?"

"Yes Hun. **Pause** Maybe your old Mom isn't so bad after all huh?" **Small encouraging smile**

"You're the BEST MOM EVER!!!" (yeah, until the next time I won't let him do something he wants to, and I suddenly become the worst Mom ever again LOL)

That was hard. I don't like admitting to my kids that there are 'bad' parents out there. But it's simply the sad truth. Hell, I know I'm certainly not perfect, and there are those who would probably call me a 'bad' parent myself for even letting the boys watch this movie in the first place.

But they watched it WITH me. I was there to answer all their questions, and you know what? In the end? They didn't find it 'scary' at all LOL. Maybe because I kept prepping them through the whole movie for the Prom scene that was going to come at the end LOL. Maybe simply because a 1976 'scary' flick can't hold a candle to a 'scary' flick of their generation. They're unfortunately more desensitized to that kind of 'stuff'.

What I hope they got out of this movie, is to be NICE to and tolerant of the kids at school who are maybe a little different!

If not ... don't go to Prom! ;-p

The last 'odd' part to my Mother's Day, was when the Ex called in the afternoon and invited the boys and I over for a Mother's Day dinner. I accepted! :-)

We are an odd pair the ex and I lol. People tell us all the time that we get along so well. And we do. For the most part :-) So I accepted. His Mother was there also. He cooked, he cleaned up afterwards, all we had to do was park our butts at the table and eat! He even made cookies for dessert! Mmmmmmm cookies!!!!!! OK, so maybe the cookies were for the boys .....

I didn't really have any plans for Mother's Day, since my back was too sore to make the drive to my own Mother's (2hrs away). I also didn't expect to wake up with extra kids in my house (when I originally said yes to the sleepover, it wasn't planned for Mother's Day), or didn't plan to spend the afternoon snuggled in my bed with my boys watching Carrie, and I certainly didn't expect to be going to my ex-husband's house for Mother's Day dinner with my ex-mother-in-law.

But ya know what? It was a GREAT Mother's Day!!!! I wouldn't have changed a thing!

OK, maybe two things ... I'd give myself telekinetic and invisibility powers. Hee hee hee. And would have insisted on Fruit Loops in bed! ;-)

Have a great day all!
K