And the Mother of the Year Award Goes To...

I'm not a perfect mother, have never claimed to be. Do I lose my temper? Sure, only about 15 times a day minimum. Do I yell? Are you kidding? If I didn't, they'd never hear me. Do I spank my kids? Yes, I do, not often, but I do. Do I ever feel bad? Um, only about 1/2 the time, the rest of the time I'm thinking I probably could've swatted harder.All my imperfections out of the way, I actually think I'm a decent mom. I love my kids, and I'm pretty sure they know that. I have yet to catch one of them playing with fire, or torturing small animals, so I'm pretty sure I'm not raising a future serial killer. They're good, well rounded, polite kids, or so I've been told. I've never personally witnessed that behavior from them, but I've heard tale of it from other people. I do know, that I've never been threatened by someone calling children's services on me, but I also know I'll probably never win mother of the year. I've always thought that, up until today. Now I have to come to terms with the fact, that I will for certain, never be awarded mother of the year, much less even nominated.Why, do you ask? Believe it or not, I forgot to pick my child up at school today. How does that happen? It's alot easier than you think. The kids usually walk home from school, but this one day, the oldest decides to stay after school for some kind of acheivement test tutoring. I had to take my dad to the doctor today, and in the process, totally forgot that I reminded my son I would pick him up. The school calls me 20 minutes after the school day has ended, and as soon as I saw the number, I remembered. And the first words out of my mouth are, "oh no, I've forgot about Jake". I'm sure that really impressed the school secretary. I tried to explain what happened, but she didn't seem moved by my story, she just asked me to hurry and get him so she could go home.I arrive at the school, and pick up my traumatized little boy. He was convinced that I had abandoned him. Great, now I have to put my kid in therapy because I'm an airhead. So what if he doesn't torture small animals, he is now going to have abandonment issues to deal with. And I have to give up all my dreams of wearing a crown and introducing myself as mother of the year!