I pride myself on being moderately easy going. Sure, I have my moments of mood swings and shiny, happy fits of rage but by and large - pretty even keel. I find myself dancing along the edge of a very high emotional cliff right now though. I've lost patience with that which 3 weeks ago barely registered with me. Before you say it, I've checked the calendar and its not that. All week long I have grumbled at the dirty clothes left on the floor, the ever present load of laundry or dirty dishes, and the trash snorfelling of the dog. I hear you - what mom hasn't had these issues come up and slap them across the face unceremoniously. Its just part of the job. If I were in the traditional workplace I'm sure it would be demanding supervisor, repetitious paperwork, etc. I get that. I really do. But the thing that has driven me past the point of no return is box tops. No - not a recycling issue. Boxtops for Education. Tiny little pink squares on certain products that can be torn off and turned in to your child's school and then sent in to the manufacturer earning your school ten cents per square. When Zoë first started school, I happily collected and counted and sent in. I bought in to every competition, incentive - I was a dedicated boxtop collector. I used their website as a portal for all of my on line shopping, which is a copious amount of shopping, so that a percentage of my purchases would benefit our school. I gave boxtops the best 3 years of my life. Last year I boycotted and felt horrible guilt by the end of the year. It seemed like such a small thing to do to help out so I vowed to restart my efforts with the start of the new school year. I switched over my school alliance at the website and clipped my coupons for boxtops products and amassed approximately 75 million boxtops - okay, maybe not that many but you catch my drift ... a lot. Yesterday morning I found myself purposely throwing away that carton pack from the yoplait yogurt and the cereal box. I felt such freedom - like burning old love letters filled with the promises of someone who turned out to be an ass of massive proportion. I can breathe again! Liberation! But still the anger. Rationally I realize I need to get over it but I've got some issues here. Not sure what boxtops are representing to me but whatever it is - I resent the hell out of it and want it to die a miserable death.
OK ... I feel a bit better now. Now back to picking up the dirty clothes and putting them in the hamper that is ..... you guessed it, right next to the pile. "I love my children, I love my children, I love my children, I love my children, I love my children."
1 comment:
AMen sister!! I am in the same boat. Last year, I realized one day that I was gathering some from 'the drawer' where I threw them and had 30. I realized that it gave the school a whopping $3.00. I think I would rather give them a $5 check every so often not to have to tear the friggin things out and keep them and send them and blaaaahhhhh! blarg.
Post a Comment