When Mother Comes to Town

Why is it that crazy things always happen when my mother comes to town? I want so bad for her to see what a well-adjusted, has-it-all-together, super-woman of a daughter she raised. Instead, it seems like all she sees is a fine mess.

It seems like every time Mom comes to town, things go awry. Sometimes it's simple things - like I forget to buy one ingredient for dinner so I have to rush out to the store while she scurries around the kitchen making sure things don't get ruined while I'm gone. Or, one time she came and I discovered that I didn't have any extra rolls of toilet paper in the house. Bad times, yo.

Other times, it's bigger things like our septic system deciding to take a little vacation and stop working. Or, what happened when she was here for the Alzheimer's Walk.

I had had a super-busy week, and had a few errands that I needed to run after work before Mom, Lisa, and Chloe arrived. I had planned to cook up a big pot of chili for dinner (I love chili in the fall!), so I called Chris and asked him to put it on the stove while I ran my errands. I have a great husband who can usually hold his own in the kitchen, so he agreed and I thought all was well. When I pulled into the driveway about 45 minutes later, every door and window in the whole house was open, and smoke was rolling out of the house.

I jumped out of my car and ran inside to see what in the world was going on. As it turns out, Chris put the chili on the stove (on high), then went out into the garage and forgot all about it. Only after the house was filled with smoke and the smoke-alarms were going off did he run inside to find the chili burned beyond anything salvageable.

And, of course, my mother arrives approximately 15 minutes after this takes place (while smoke was still rolling out of the house!)

I was so upset! The house smelled terrible, dinner was ruined, and my mother was there to witness it all! At dinner that night (out at our favorite restarant), Mom was trying to comfort me and I said, "But Mom, stuff like this never happens when you have your mother in town!" Mom just looked at me and began reminding me of all the diasters that have happened while her mother was visiting (ya know, like a hose busting on the refrigerator and flooding the house).

Is it terrible that I took great comfort in the fact that things aren't always perfect for my mom when her mom is in town? *sigh*