My wise son, Benjamin

Last Thursday morning I woke up cranky. Wednesday I had painted for 14 hours with the roller brush, and it did not sit well with my shoulders. I got to bed at 1:30am, as the project went way later than normal. I fell asleep for one hour, and then woke up with muscle spasms. It was horrible. I finally fell back asleep around 5am.

Benjamin had asked me for a ruler with centimeters on it on Wednesday, and the only one I knew of was inside my walk-in closet, which had plastic taped over it. I told Ben I would write a note for him to excuse him for the day. However, he kept asking all evening. I got a little frustrated with him.

So, in the morning when he woke me up at 6:45 to ask me again, my head was hazy, and all I could remember was that I had told him numerous times the previous day that I didn't have a ruler for him. I'm sorry to say that I lost my cool and yelled at him that I still didn't have a centimeter ruler! I instantly regretted it. I felt doubly worse when I remembered the ruler in my unblocked closet a couple of minutes later, which I found and gave to him.

After school, I apologized to him for yelling at him. He couldn't remember what I was talking about. I reminded him of the conversation, and he said, "That's okay, Mom. When people don't get much sleep, they act cranky."

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone took being snapped at so well?