mother of the year 2015

I am once again for the Mother of the Year award. This afternoon, Ren told me that most of
the time I am a good mom, but he continued with, “but sometimes you are not a good person. Sometimes you are mean.”
    “Thank you for sharing that with me. I will work on that,” I replied. I meant it, although Ren was making that very difficult today. He was whiny and demanding and disrespectful and stubborn, strong willed, ornery, and mischievous. He wasn’t being cooperative or gentle or kind, because, according to him, “I don’t feel like it.”
    We still had a few hours before we needed to meet B at the church for service tonight, so I took a little time to lay down on the couch and watch tv, something of a luxury lately. I fell asleep. It was not restful. I was interrupted every few minutes by none other than Ren who took to waking me, torturing me, and trashing my office, which I noticed when I went upstairs to make sure everyone was ready to go. He threw my papers on the floor, dumped out my pens, left trash and broken stuff all over, again simply because, “I felt like it.”
    Angry, yes. Sad, yes. I tried to not be reactionary, but that mean mom just surfaced. I told him to clean the mess he left in my office while I stood there and watched. Then I asked him to come to his room with me where I took his basket of toys and dumped them all over the floor.
    “Why did you do that? He cried.    
    “To make a point. I want you to know what it feels like when someone else makes a mess of your things. Now clean it up.”
    “You should be the one cleaning this mess.”
    “I should be, but I’m not gonna.”
    “Why? He asked with tears in his eyes.
    “Because I don’t feel like it.”
    So, to all who made this award possible, thank you. I know just where to put it