The Day After Halloween

The festivities are over. The whimsical night of childhood fun and excitement is done. Now, all that is left is the aftermath of Halloween. In my opinion, the aftermath can be more terrifying that the scary ghosts and ghouls. This is a tortuous day for many parents, and I would assume for the poor teachers that probably get the worst of it. Kid’s Behavior is at its worst, sugar highs have worn off, and now…our homes and classrooms are filled with grumpy, over-tired kids with candy hangovers.

Let the candy wars begin! I don’t know about you, but my kids hit the jackpot this year. We have more candy in my house than I have ever seen. Three plastic Target bags filled to the top to be exact. And that is in addition to the two bags of candy I purchased that I didn’t hand out! They will all be fighting with each other over whose candy belongs to who like it is gold. They dump it all out and count it, sort it, and eat it. I will find myself repeating the same words over and over again…”No, you can’t eat candy for breakfast. No, you can’t eat candy for lunch. No you can’t eat candy for dinner. NO MORE CANDY!” Then this will happen.

This morning was particularly difficult. Not only because it is Tuesday (Shit Ass Tuesday), that’s just the kicker. It’s awful because pretty much everything went wrong from the moment I woke up. It started with all the kids, and myself, sleeping in a little too long. We all went to bed late and it was tough to roll out of bed. If it was the weekend, this would be glorious, however, it is only Tuesday…have to get going for work and school. So we all got up a bit late which started the downward spiral. Breakfast was delayed, getting dressed was rushed, and getting out the door was a challenge.

Halloween was pretty rainy this year. I knew it rained, but I didn’t realize that all the kids’ shoes were completely saturated and were still dripping wet this morning. Had I know just how wet they were, I would have thrown them in the dryer last night. Ready, set, MELTDOWN. Apparently both girls HATE their other shoes (even though we just got the boots two days ago). There are NO other shoes in the whole house that are as good as the new boots. She can’t possibly wear anything else. So we fought for 10 minutes about shoes. The oldest stood out on the sidewalk to watch for the bus while I yelled and pretty much forced her to put on her damn shoes. Meanwhile, I realized with all the commotion and festivities of last night, I has completely forgot to sign homework planners. So there I was pulling out papers and trying to get all signatures as fast as I could. “Bus!” Just as I zipped up the last backpack, the bus was rounding the corner. Off they went tearing down the street in the pitch black to catch the bus. Crisis averted.

Now for the Hulk. She had no pull-up or clothes on yet and was running around naked. I spent 10 minutes waiting while she picked out the perfect pull-up (Not the Doc McStuffins one, not the bug one, but the striped one with the flowers. That’s the perfect one). Then, I chased her around the house as she ran around crying because she wanted to do it herself. So I let her do it herself…and she just runs away again laughing. I was already late, stressed, and sweating. I’m done with this game. I had to hold her down to get it on along with her clothes. I tried really hard to get her to brush her teeth, but that was a flop. Mom of the year for sure. Next came the shoes. Of course she wanted to put them on herself, but they weren’t “working” so she flipped out yet again. The shoes were chucked across the room and she was now on the floor flopping around like a fish out of water. I went over to help her and she hit me, bit me multiple times, and then started growling and spitting. Isn’t this pleasant. Is she possessed? Did she catch a demon on Halloween? My solution…Carry her rotten little butt kicking and screaming to the car and strapping her in the car seat. Then I put on her shoes. Gottcha! I then proceeded to drive her to the child care center listening to her cry the whole way as I sat there sweating from the major morning workout I just had. Good times.

So, in conclusion, the day after Halloween blows. Kids go crazy. Too much sugar and up too late. Halloween is awesome for the kids and I am so glad that they had so much fun…the day after is awful for the parents. I’m exhausted and the day has barley started. Can I go to bed now?