Irritable Dad Mode......Little Child Mode?

Coralee occasionally has to remind me to mellow out and relax. She teases me about going into Irritable Dad Mode. I just agree with her, because I know she's right. I have all kinds of issues if things are out of place. Generally, when I'm home, I start barking orders to the kids to pick up their trains, and dress up clothes, and race cars, etc.

Last night, before I climbed into bed, my beautiful sweetheart had this sweet grin on her face. "Yeee haaah, I'm getting lucky!" was my first thought. When I realized that wasn't necessarily the game plan, I said, "what?"

She replied, "I'm just shocked that you missed something out of place."

It turned out our bedroom door was ajar, something that would generally drive me nuts.

I said, "Ah, I would have noticed it before actually getting into bed."

She suggested leaving it open, because maybe our cat wouldn't knock on our door if he could just enter. Perhaps he may even go over to the love seat in our bedroom and go to sleep.

"That won't happen. We've had the door open before, and the cat just enters and starts talking. I think that's actually worse than the knocking," I said.

Sometimes, my employees will give me a hard time at work and will purposefully place things around the office in places that bug me. They laugh when I put everything back in it's PROPER place. I get irritated and start barking at them to put their trains, dress-up clothes and race cars away.

The other night, while Cora was at a meeting, I was home with the kids. Matthew was extremely tired and everything anybody said or did set him into a crying and screaming fit.

After we had prayer and I was telling the kids to go to bed, Bryson decided to poke Matt. Matt, of course, screamed bloody murder.

I shouted, "Leave him alone! He's already pissed off!"

Immediately, the kids gasped and I recognized an error in judgment. Bryson said, "Dad said a swear word!" He and all the other kids laughed.

I then spent the next half hour trying to bribe Bryson so that he wouldn't tell Cora that I had a slip of the tongue.

"If you tell Mom, I'll not let you watch American Idol with me."

So much for bribery......it turned out to be a threat.

I think back on this and laugh to myself. Why was I so worried about what my kids were going to tell Cora? I don't think I was really concerned about what she would think or say, because I confessed this incident to her later that evening.

I think I slipped into Little Child Mode, afraid of my parents finding out about something mischievous I had done.

The last time I slipped into Little Child Mode was last Thursday when I stomped and cried when Randall ate my Snickers bar.......JERK!