There are days when the constant complaining and questions and needs from your child take a toll. It’s like being pushed faster and faster on a merry-go-round, making you dizzy. And when you get to that point, for some odd reason (I think it’s called being a parent) you end up saying something nonsensical. Okay, straight up stupid.

We were having dinner at the table and my six year-old was super antsy and very talkative, he wouldn’t sit down and had ache after ache, and problem after problem to spin this particular night. There was nothing seriously wrong with him and I think he continued with this behavior because he knew it was starting to get to me. I wonder where he learned that.

Suddenly, I looked up from my plate and said to Azul with my eyebrows raised, “You know what you need?”

“What?” He responded as he stopped in mid-sentence of another complaint.

“A good dose of suck it up.” Whaaat!?! Where did that come from? Where could I have even picked that up? Who says that? Oh, I’m dizzy!

The spinning in my head stopped, along with everything else. That statement caused a brief moment of silence and then, laughter! All the complaining cease and we continued dinner laughing and repeating, “You know what you need? A good dose of suck it up!”

I’m still a little embarrassed over that statement, but I know what I need to get over it.