Horses, fits, and beggars

So let me start out by saying- that list I was keeping? About all the things I was going to write about. GONE. Along with all my contacts, pictures, and texts. Happened in a freak phone accident. but whatever. I'm over it. So this post is NOT on the list, we'll see how it turns out.

So my sister is gone to Hawaii this week, and she left her kids for my mother to babysit. Of  course my mother has her single-life activities she HAS to attend (even though she claims she's sick of it), so I've watched them Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and I will be watching them Friday also. At first I was like "Mom grow up, take on some responsibility, you committed to do this, so do it." But now I realize that she's just really out of the mother stage, not used to being tied down, and after a day or two of taking care of 5 kids, she's run ragged and ready to break down. So it's okay, I can give her a little break. 

But I decided that I'm not a very good mother. When they're being difficult I find myself thinking things like "you're being SO irrational right now." or "stop acting like a baby" And I always think "why can't they just understand. They're being so ridiculous right now. if they'd just stop crying they could have what they want. Crying solves nothing" or "Just be rational and reasonable" but you can't expect a child to be reasonable, they just want sympathy....which I have none of. 

Anyways, this is a long introduction to the point of this blog. So tonight when I was putting them to bed, Ashlyn was complaining that she wanted more snacks before she brushed her teeth. I told her she already had 2 grahm crackers, and that's all she's having. Of course she started crying. Then Aubree (her 5 year old cousin) chimed in and said, "Ashlyn, you get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." Words straight from her mother. It was the best thing ever coming from a 5  year old's mouth. 

So after they were in bed, I started thinking about that phrase and how it applied to that situation. I felt like they were the perfect words for all the thoughts that normally run through my head in situations like that. Then I was like "I'm going to say that to my kids all the time" And for teenagers- it will be "beggars can't be choosers" a little deeper, but the same meaning, and just as "bottom-line" -ish. And the adult version of that idiom? "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" (or if you come from my family "don't KICK a gift horse in the mouth :) 

Mostly this long blog is to say those 3 phrases mean the same thing. Guess that's something we all struggle with, no matter what age.