The bad and the ugly

Wish I could wish them away, the days that start badly. Just the other day I was telling my friends how I used to think that I was great with kids and how last 6 years have shown me a huge pile of evidence to the contrary. Not only my kid manages to get on my nerves with seemingly no effort even his friends know how to get my goat. But today's ugliness is entirely between RRJ and me. Today my parents arrive this afternoon, in the morning I was hoping against hope that people will do their thing and leave for school so that I could get the house in a shape it hasn't been in for months. RRJ came to know about the impending arrival of his 'favourite guys' last night and since then has been wanting to be picked up from school early so that he can accompany me to the station. I have been refusing it since prior to lunch I have a meeting scheduled with another colleague to discuss the possible additions to the current experimental set up, his expertise would really make a difference to the experiments we intend to perform in the coming week. I wasn't sure when I will be done with the meeting and didn't want to make a promise to RRJ that I wouldn't be able to keep. This morning the demand persisted and it was declared that 'if no early pick up then no school.' I was patient, then I was more patient finally the cohesive forces that were keeping it all together reached their limit and the whole being-a-reasonable-mother act fell apart. One whack in the backside, and then the second one much harder than the first one followed. They left without anyone wanting to make peace, I didn't even apologise to him. I did the dumping, arranging and cleaning and reached my office with a mind that needs a lot of arranging before it can focus on the papers that lie on my desk. My hand is still shaking from the hitting but it is my inner self that I want to shake and ask a few questions.