The Backlash

I went to work yesterday while Eddie stayed home to rest and recover.  We had a bit of a snafu during the day.  Eddie called me and asked if I knew the location of his wallet.  It is probably the norm in all families that everyone ask mom where there stuff is.  My mom explains this phenomenon in the following way:  A woman's uterus becomes a tracking device for everyone's stuff. 

As it turned out, I happened to know where the wallet was, because it was in my purse.  I had taken it with me to pick up Eddie's prescriptions.  He was so pissed at me!!  He wanted to go to the store to see how he would feel driving since he planned on going to work today.  I got mad right back because he is not supposed to be driving for the first week.  His stomach and his abdominal muscles need to heal.  I ended up hanging up on him.

So I sent him an email to explain that he needs to concentrate on healing so he doesn't end up getting injured or popping a staple and being laid up for even longer.  I didn't hear from him the rest of the day.

When I got home, he came up to me and told me he got my email, that he was sorry and that he called in sick to work so he could rest more.  I was so relieved!!!  

I found out that he isn't trying to be macho, he actually feels like he is being a burden.  I explained that he is in no way a burden.  I knew what his recovery would be like for me and I have no problem taking care of him and taking care of the kids while he heals.  It is important to me that he takes it easy and gets better.  This recovery time is in no way a burden to me at all. 

I also think the frustration he felt was from being cooped up in the house and not eating actual food.  I know there will be more outbursts in the following weeks, but I am prepared for them.  It's just like when my hormones were regulating after I gave birth. 

So I made him some cream of chicken soup and strained out all of the chicken chunks and served him his 3 oz dinner.

But Eddie isn't the only one with some backlash from this.  Jordan (12) met me at the door after work with bright eyes and a very hungry look on his face.  He looked down at my hands, saw that they were void of any fast food bags, threw his hands up in the air and kind of made a frustrated grunting noise.  I quickly said I would start making dinner right away.  He snidely responded with, "Can't you just go pick something up?"

NO!  No I can not!  We aren't eating fast food for dinner.  I cooked up some dirty rice and beans, which no one really ate and everyone complained about.  Katie threw it on the floor in her protest.  They all went to bed a little hungry.  They will learn that if they want to eat, they will eat what I cook. (Katie did wake up at 4 am screaming for crackers.)

Jordan has been searching the cupboards for the junk we used to have on hand.  Again, that was only met with frustration. 

He might be thinking he can call child protective services on me for starving my kids, but the lack of junk food in our house might just get me that award yet...