One day I will not let it get to me when the Boys start and end the day with a whine.
One day I will stay serene and calm as the pre-breakfast energy-low hits just around the time I'm trying to persuade them that it is a good idea to let me use my icy-cold hands to smear moisturising cream into their eczema-prone skin.
(One day I'll find the right herbal lotion or potion to improve my circulation.)
One day I will ask them to put their shoes on for the school run, and they'll do it, first time. (No - that's never going to happen).
One day I will walk out of the flat for the school run cool, collected, and without the collar of my coat turned the wrong way out or hissing 'Just get up. The. Stairs!' at my sons.
One day I will drink coffee, and like it. The world of double plus plus latte's with mocha shots and fairy wings sprinkled on the top will be my oyster.
One day I will sit in elegant cafes on the King's Road, Chelsea, watching the world go by with newly-polished boots (fxck it - let's just make them new), skinny jeans that don't dig in at the waist because I just can't bear to admit I have gone up a dress-size again, fitted (but not too fitted, because that would be trashy) t-shirts from Joseph, as I talk knowledgably about World Events.
One day I will buy something from Pret a Porter.
One day it will fit.
One day I will click 'open' when my e-mail notifies me that a new piece of news has come through to me from The Financial Times.
One day I will understand the term 'sub-prime'.
One day I will be paid to write.
One day I will have something useful to write about. One day I will be able to walk away from bitchy comments left about pieces I have written on other websites in the understanding that it is not about my issues, but theirs.
One day I will groooooooooove to jazz. One day I will be able to pick a tune out of the discordant jumble of notes and not start itching every time the name Dave Brubeck is mentioned.
One day I will enjoy opera. Or at least, be able to stay awake through it.
One day the Boys won't erupt in the car on the way home from school when I say that no, they can't have a second biscuit because we are only five minutes from home and they can wait to have a sandwich there.
One day the reason there aren't any more biscuits won't be because I snaffled the rest on my way to collect them.
One day the Boys won't mutter and complain when I point out that they chose an extra ten minutes television over a second bed-time story.
One day they will choose that second bed-time story instead of the extra television.
And then, one day, they won't. Because they won't want any bed-time story.
One day, I'll miss the whining at the beginnng and the end of the day. And I'll be glad I loved it - really - whilst I was going through it.
What a brilliant eclectic mix of wishes! Lots to make me chuckle and plenty to make me remember what it was like to have a little boy. My 13 year old has just had three friends over for a sleep-over: the room is now a pig sty and smells of adolescent boy. The days of a bedtime story are long gone but the memories are still there.
ReplyDeleteGreat post,PM - and I can identify with a lot of it (especially the putting on of shoes and starting the day with a whine...).
ReplyDeleteThis was great. But you did make me cry, with those last two...
ReplyDeleteI really feel for you or should that be feel with you. I am so looking forward to the day I stop dressing little people
ReplyDeleteThat seems like quite a sad post, Potty, that you are wishing things were better and hoping one day they will be. Maybe I'm reading to much into it, maybe I'm just relating to some of the content a little too much because I have hoped and dreams for the future and often use the word 'one day'.
ReplyDeleteTrish, thanks. Not looking forward to the pig-sty smell I must say!
ReplyDeleteNVG, of course it's all OK as long as you can end the day with wine as well as a whine!
Solveig - thanks, and sorry!
MadHouse, it's not so bad, really!
Rosie, more reflective than sad, I think. I'm fine - but have to admit yesterday evening I was a bit knackered, so maybe that's why the tone!
PM - lovely post. Brought a smile to my face.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have a very funny powerpoint to send you about sub-prime. You will be fluent by the end of it (in bull-sh*tting at least!)
LCM x
One day I'll write some ground breaking comment on a post. Really all I want to say is I enjoyed reading it. Has made me reflect
ReplyDeleteOh you'll be able to do most of those one day, but with a Zimmer/walking frame too!
ReplyDeleteActually that probably came out all wrong. What I meant was, by the time the kids have freed up that much time (ie. left home and become truly independant) it'll be so far off in the future you'll need the Zimmer. Not that you're ancient ar anything now. Heck you're younger than me......Slinks off.
ReplyDeleteDreams are nice aren't they ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust read your last 4 posts. Can't think of anything witty or meaningful to say in the comments boxes. But just wanted you to know I've come by...
ReplyDeleteHow's that Moscow list?
LCM - looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteMB, thankyou. Not a ground breaking post, so no ground breaking comments needed!
EPM, don't worry about it. I got your point - and am off now to sit on the Stannah as it creaks up the stairs...
Sharon, they are. Thanks heavens.
Iota, oh you know how to wound a person, don't you. Did you HAVE to mention the Moscow list?
you missed one. One day, our adolescent children will stay in bed until midday on the weekend, and you will have to pull my nails out with pliers before I wake them. I've put in so many years of sleep deprivation, I am hanging out for the day when I can slam the front door and drive off to shop leaving them slumbering in their pits....
ReplyDeletePigx
fuck the bitches (bastards?) that leave nasty comments. may their children annoy the hell out of them for ever more...
and how's the Moscow list btw? ;-)
ReplyDeleteOne day, for a very brief moment, you will do all those things, and then the rest of your life will catch up with you and there will be other issues that prevent you from fulfilling your dreams. Never mind, you'd get bored with it anyway.
ReplyDeletePig, seldom bastards, actually. More often the former... And thanks for that list comment. Thanks...
ReplyDeleteIrene, I have no doubt you're right, it would be boring. Be nice to find that out, though!
Lovely post, and very poignant at the end. We will miss it when it's over, but then there will be all the highs and lows of adolescence and the adventures of their twenties to savour. And then the grandchildren when we can get to do it (in small doses) all over again...
ReplyDeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteBut really - half of these you should just let go! Like who wants to like coffee? It's horrible and stinky, stains your teeth, makes you dependent on it and it's bad for your stomach. And why would you waste your life reading FT stories? Just wondering...
That's a wonderful post! I love it! You are getting so close to the move now. Good luck with it all and can't wait to read what life is like this side of the world :) Px
ReplyDeleteOh potty, loved this post. So funny and so true. Sorry I have been remiss in commenting - I haven't been near the computer in days and days and days.
ReplyDeleteOne day I will be all of these things too. That's the plan anyway.
Hey - and maybe one day soon (!!!) you will be telling the boys to get up/down the stairs in that quiet yet ominously threatening voice in Russian...
I feel all sad now because I don't want it to end!
ReplyDelete