Ice Cream for Dinner

Photo by Samantha Sophia

Yesterday was a tough day.  I spent seven hours trying to get 6th and 8th graders to sit down quietly and take their Science tests.  After substitute teaching, I ran to the post office and then came home for my second shift as a mom.  My son, age 6, was testing the limits and ignored me multiple times when I asked him to do things.  He also talked back and was very rude to this momma.  When our normal clip chart of discipline failed, I sent him to the downstairs table to eat, set my daughter up with food on her high chair and went into the kitchen.   After a long day, I was done.

I very quietly opened up the bottom drawer to the freezer.  I snuck out an ice cream bar.   I knew that if my daughter saw it, she would want one, and I REALLY didn't want her to have chocolate before my son's soccer practice.  So I hid.  I sank down behind the kitchen counter and sat there eating my ice cream.  Whenever my daughter asked what I was doing, I replied, "Nothing" and kept eating. 

When I finished the ice cream, I very quickly snuck the wrapper into the trash and went back to being a mom.  It was a "terrrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  Some days are like that, even in _______."  (Fill in the name of your town!)  A little reference there to one of my favorite children's books by Judith Viorst.

Some days are tough.  Some days you run out of energy, patience and steam.  Some days you just need to take a little mommy time and get back to life a few minutes later.  Since time outs generally follow a child's age, could I please get a 38 minute time out?  Just saying...

Take time out for yourself if you need it.  Things will get better in time.  Have ice cream for dinner if that makes you happy.  After all, it was a Skinny Cow ice cream bar, so it's pretty much the same thing as vegetables, right? 


If you are new to Pancakes and Perseverance, welcome!  I'm a mom of two, freelance writer/editor, teacher and a fifteen-year veteran of youth and preteen ministry.  I love Jesus, ice cream and encouraging my fellow humans to find joy in the everyday.  If you'd like to subscribe, fill in your email on the right side of the page.  I generally post once a week or so.  Let's walk this journey together.  It's better with sprinkles on top. 

Alisa