Faking it

Why do I feel the need to be the "cool, that doesn't bother me" parent when other people are around. My daughter trips on the playground today...oh honey, you're ok, just get up...when inside I'm screaming HOLY CRAP ARE YOU OK! My son is screaming at the top of his lungs in the restaurant tonight and I find myself saying, no hun, talk softly...and inside...NO! Absolutely not young man, you stop that this instant!

I guess when eyes are staring at me I feel like I need to look in control. Ya, I have twin toddlers and yes they are more than I can handle some days, but I'm oh so in control of this situation. I wonder if it's a gene pool tactic. Deep down inside my genes are telling me to make it look easy so our species continues on, if you show what's really going on inside your head, others may not reproduce. Our DNA must thrive!

We had a real test last night. My brother and his girlfriend are in town. We put our daughter to bed. Instead of falling right to sleep like normal. She starts hollering something awful. Our guests look at us and we calmly say, she does this from time to time. She's just very excited about her new visitors. WAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! No really, she's ok, she just needs to settle a bit. Five minutes pass and my husband goes to check on her. She's fine, just pissed. He re-pacifiers her, hands her her bunnybear and backs out. She's quiet for about 30 seconds, WAAAAAAAA!!!! We look at our guests. I find myself saying, well she had a big day, we'll give her a little bit longer. 10 minutes later I'm about to break. I look at my husband with pleading eyes and he gives me the nod. As I'm walking to her room, she stops. I retreat. Back on the couch I go looking unphased. WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! I jump up. Silence. My brother quips, she's got you trained. Heh. heh. heh. Then asleep for good.

Had they not been here there would have been a heated roundtable discussion between my husband and me. Teeth? Overtired? Growing pains? Separation anxiety? Too long of naps? Too Hot? Too cold? To much air? Every single base would have been covered and we would finally come upon a conclusion, point a finger and then fix the problem. But with guests, we were calm and not worried about a thing. As I type this, she's hollering out again tonight. My little girl hates strangers and there are two in her house right now. I think I'll give her another 10 minutes because I've got this under control.