Admit it, your kid sucks too.

Since I finally accepted that PunkYuppie had become a mommy blog, I gave in and started reading other mommy blogs. It's been interesting and often wildly entertaining to read about other new moms learning about parenting under the gun.

However.

I'm troubled by a glaring lack of one particular topic. We write openly and cheerfully about poop, sex after baby, lack of sleep delirium, blah blah blah, but we all seem to avoid one key detail of parenting, one huge part of the day to day life of a mom.

Not liking your kid.

Let's be honest, we've all disliked our offspring at some point, when they won't sleep, when they discover biting, when they won't stop crying for no apparent reason, whatever. I personally am pissed at Havoc several times a day. I'm currently ticked off because, while he doles out hugs to Zoe and Tim like they're going out of style, he will fight my hugs so hard that he literally jumps out of my arms with complete disregard to his own safety. I also can't stand him when he dumps out the crumbs from his Dad's empty Cheezits box (thanks for leaving that within his reach, babe) all over the floor and grinds them to powder. I hate that he still won't say Mommy, but says Zeezee (his name for our dog, Zoe) about five hundred times an hour.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my kid fiercely and will fight to the death anyone with the balls to say otherwise (I'm small, but scrappy, and I fight dirty). He's awesome and I wouldn't trade him for anything. I am just honest about the fact that loving my kid doesn't have to mean being happy with him every second. Sometimes he's a pain in the ass, and when he is I count the minutes until it's late enough to have a good stiff drink. Sometimes I just want to toss him to his Dad and disappear for a few hours.

Sometimes being Mommy SUCKS. And that's okay! Sometimes being Heather sucks, too, but no one thinks any less (or at least not much less) of me for feeling that way, so why should I be ashamed of being sick of being on call 24/7 to an infant or toddler? This is a hard job! The boss is a demanding jerk sometimes! It sucks a lot of the time, for every single one of us. Hell, we should just be proud of ourselves for showing up every day, for grinning and bearing it, for just doing it.

And if we can't be proud of it, at least there's always liquor.