Before we had kids, I used to sometimes give my day a letter grade. Like, I’d have an A+ day, or a B day, or maybe a C- day. Since Gal Smiley was born, I now often give my letter grade to myself, ranking my Mommy skills. I might say, “Today was an A Mommy day” or “Today was only a C+ Mommy day.” It depends on how well I dealt with the various crises that come up on a day to day basis, and how well I managed to find things for the kids to do to fill up their day, and how well I did at coming up with creative and fun meals…that sort of thing.
I suspect this kind of grading is not very healthy. I’m too used to being praised and, in general, doing well at stuff, and being a mom isn’t really something you can compare to getting a good review at work or getting an A on a test. I remember MyFriendJen telling me she felt the same when her first was born — what she missed the most about being a stay-at-home mom was the positive feedback. There wasn’t anyone there to say, “Great job, Jen, good diaper change!” Instead, the baby was all about complaining and crying when things were bad, and you had to take the quiet moments — sleeping or just sitting quietly — as your sources of approval.
Anyway, I still can’t seem to stop myself from doing it, but I did learn a long time ago that when you have a Bad Mommy Day, there’s not too much you can do except a) tell your kids you’re sorry you were sad/angry/lazy, and b) vow to try again tomorrow.
That said, today was a really truly awful, bad bad mommy day. I’d have to give myself an F, and although there have been hard times, and frustrating times, and screamy times, I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten worse than a D before. The main problem is that we are potty training Gal Smiley, and she is a stubborn one, and I am spending way, way too much time fretting about what our friends are doing in this respect (because, in all other households, potty training always seems to go so smoothly, and at a much younger age). Plus, I am pregnant, and thus hormonal and super tired all the time. So I freak out, and get frustrated, and she won’t listen, and then we reach a point where I am calling Sir Monkeypants at work to have a good cry, while the kids have honey-on-saltines for dinner and watch Super Password for entertainment while wearing no pants.
Thank goodness Sir Monkeypants is an awesome dad, and an understanding husband, and today he rushed home and took the kids out for dinner, so I could spend some time blogging and playing Bejeweled Online. And now I feel a little better (although, I am gearing up for the dreaded haircut — see below). I’m sure that, as Scarlett says, tomorrow is another day. And that day will be better than this one.
TurtleHead 
Ignore the subject, it doesn’t really mean anything.
There are bound to be a few F days here and there, especially when taking care of kids. Another difference between being at work and being a Mom is that at work when you mess up generally speaking you get constructive criticism, but at home the “employees/managers” (i.e. kids) are so brutally honest that they’ll tell it like it is.
And people who have an easy time with toilet training their young ‘ens probably aren’t telling you the whole story. Or there are other things that Gal Smiley did way better and way before some of those other kids. That’s how I like to look at it. For instance, Mini Me is “sleeping through the night” (not just the 5 hours, but more like 7, 8, 9+ hours each night) and I know it’s somewhat unusual at his age. However, he doesn’t nap much at all during the day. I sometimes envy the moms who get to nap during the day/do things for themselves when their kids nap for hours at a time. But I think about it and would much rather have him sleep well at night than wake up every 4 hours. It’s not a contest, you just have to look at all the amazing things that Gal Smiley CAN do. That said, you are certainly allowed to have some F days. On these days I call myself “neglect-a-mom”.
This is what happens when I have to rush through my post since the baby is crying because he is tired!