Tag: humor

Postal Head Games.

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I’m an online shopper. I get a lot of stuff online. Diapers, wipes, cleaning supplies, clothes for me, clothes for the kids, books. You get it. There are so many pros to online shopping, it’s hard to say no. Free shipping, cheap prices, not having to go into a store to find said thing. It used to be just Amazon that did the free shipping thing, but now all of the websites do free shipping or at least free shipping after 50 dollars. It’s gotten to the point where if a website actually charges me for shipping, I get offended. I scoff. I cannot believe that they would dare add a 7.99 shipping charge onto my order. I’m so spoiled. We’re all so spoiled with the conveniences of our modern world. With that said, I lead into my problem.

It’s a very first world problem, but it is a problem. Any online shopper will sympathize with me I am sure. The mailman. The deliverer of my goods. The man who judges every purchase, every bill, how many packages I get, where the packages are from. I get a junk mail letter that looks like a collectors notice. I rip it open and relieved to see it is just a junk mail fake out, I want to shout back out the door at the mailman. “No worries! Just a false alarm! We actually are quite responsible with our finances!” The more packages I get, the more I feel like he judges the bills that I get. “Hmm… a second bill from the ENT. Maybe she should spend more time paying her bills and not ordering packages”. I think of all the mail I get and what my mailman can gather from me based on my parcels, magazines, letters, and so forth. He knows all my health problems, well at least the many specialists my family and I see. He knows we are LDS because he sees our church magazines come monthly. He knows we have a lot of family in Utah who send us letters and packages. I just feel like the mailman could be part detective. Why hire a private eye for anything when you can just question the mailman.

At first most of the stuff I ordered was from Amazon. So, he’d bring my big package of Subscribe and Save and I’d say, “Oh there’s my monthly supply of diapers. Thanks”. Then, I’d get another box and I’d say, “Oh, there are my wipes”.  After a few packages I start running out of excuses. I want to just yell out after him, “My son has autism!” I don’t know what it has to do with anything, but it seems like a decent enough excuse to use.

A recently had a growth spurt. When my kids have growth spurts they grow like two sizes at once and then just stay there for a year or so. So, I ordered her summer clothes and new shoes at the beginning of the summer. Then literally two weeks later she sprouted out of everything and I had to order new things. I guess what online ordering does have to do with Autism is that it’s hard for me to get to the store. So I buy a bunch of things, try them on, and ship back the ones that don’t work. I know that is easier for me and it’s nothing to be ashamed of, but I cannot help feeling guilty and sheepish when I get the packages in the mail. The worst thing is, companies lately love to send things out all individually. I don’t know why they do this. It’s not great for them long term. We see all those boxes and we become ashamed, or worse, they come on a Saturday when the husband is home and he freaks out and starts frantically scrolling on his phone checking the bank accounts to see if you have spent all of everything. They should have husband safe delivery that you can check when you order something. Because like I mentioned before, when husband sees it, you have to explain every purchase and then you have to look really responsible and return at least one item. You say something like, “Oh, I was just ordering these really to look at them. I am going to return them now that I was able to feel the beautiful quality of the clothes.” Then you ship them back cursing the stupid company that shipped them out to be delivered on a Saturday. It’s not even that the wife is overspending. At least not in my case. It’s just that husbands don’t really know the price of how much things are. If it were up to my husband, the shoe budget for the kids would be three dollars a season.

The last two weeks, I have had a lot of packages coming. Therapy items for E, clothes for A, cleaning supplies for the house, a few books to read for my upcoming trip, maybe some clothes for me on the side. Just to try on of course. Then return.

The first three packages that were delivered were delivered on the same day. The mailman set them down on the porch and said, “Got some heavy ones for you.” I used the diaper excuse, It’s the default, the first one that comes to my mind. The next day, I got a few more. “Oh, looks like they decided to send out everything I ordered on the same day LOL.” The next day, even more. So embarrassing. Saturday I get some with the husband home. Some of these packages I am getting are literally a humongous box with a tiny little box of cabinet locks for baby proofing. I am sure the mailman just loves to watch the drama unfold as he delivers his Saturday goods. Out of excuses, the first reaction that came to me was one of faux shock. If you can’t beat them join them, right?  “Whoa, so many packages? What the heck?” I ask. Then I shake my head incredulously as I take them from him, as if I am not the one who ordered the J. Crew boxes piling up in my arms. As if it is a burden and the company is randomly sending me boxes of free clothes to annoy me.

Today, the mailman just delivered one package. It was the last of them. The final try on of shoes for A. From Mini Boden. Mini Boden is based in the UK. So even if the mail man did not know what was in there, it was written on the customs form on the box with the price stamped right on it. No excuse needed. I opened my mouth to say, “A, some shoes, for you to try on and probably we will return most of them,” but I was out of energy.

Queen A

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A is the boss of the house. Or so she thinks. Sometimes A is feeling very impressed with something she has done and might remark, “Wasn’t that a very six-years-old way that I got the cheese out of the fridge?” If I agree and say, yes it was in fact a very six-years-old way to get the cheese, she is instilled with just enough confidence to keep going. She then informs me about all the things that four-years-olds, five-years-olds and six-years-olds like to do with their spare time. “Sometimes four-years-olds really like to get cheese out of the fridge because they are feeling grown up, but four-years-olds also really like to get the mail. AND they like to unlock the door when the babysitter comes. They get very upset when their moms do it for them.” When she says this she tries to align her gaze with mine. Almost as if her general assessment of four-years-olds is directed towards me.

When we were moving last winter and people were coming to look at our house, A would try to take direction of the tour. She had seen enough Fixer Uppers that she felt like she knew her way around tour-guiding houses. “And this…” she would say, “is the room where Mom puts all the things she doesn’t want to put away.” She would then quickly transition to the Master and and all it’s dazzling features. Including the accompanying “ensuite”. Let me tell you this. There was nothing ensuite about that bathroom. The house was 1400 sq. ft, built in the fifty’s, and probably updated once in the seventy’s. It worked for our needs, but it definitely did not have an ensuite.

A likes to talk a lot and fortunately for her, unfortunately for me since I am the topic of it, she has plenty of opportunities to exercise her skill. At E’s Early Intervention Playgroup she told his teachers, “My mom doesn’t have time to play with me ever so she hired a babysitter to do it instead.” This is accompanied by A putting her positive spin on the situation. “Isn’t that so nice of her?” I told them that I recently hired a babysitter to help out and when we got home I went over with A all the times that day that I had played with her.

My mother-in-law has been visiting this week, which has been wonderful to have the help. She has been getting the kids for me in the morning so that I can sleep in. On the first morning that she got up with them, I overheard A giving her the rundown of our household. “Every morning I wake up first, then I go into E’s room and I play with him. Then I have to take care of him. I feed him breakfast and make sure he is safe. I help out with my brother A LOT. Mommy really likes to sleep. Sometimes she sleeps so late that we miss lunch.” She probably would have kept incriminating me, but I ran out of my bedroom faster than I have ever gotten up in the morning and interjected. I let my mother-in-law know that A sometimes goes in first to get E while I get dressed and plays with him in his room. The breakfast that she gets him consists of old Easter, Halloween, or Christmas Candy that she hides throughout the house. Lastly, A mixes up her meals and often mistakes breakfast for lunch. I am grateful for a mother-in-law who knows me well and knows that I am quite involved with my children and would never leave my “four-years-old” to care for my highly active two-year-old with autism.

I realize how easily my praise for A goes to her head. My telling her that she does such a good job helping with her brother and that I appreciate her help, translates in her mind to pretty much her running the house and being a super awesome four-year-old who takes care of her brother all the time. My sleep deprived pleas to her at four am to go back to bed and that I really like my sleep translates to me liking my sleep so much that I sleep through not one, but two important meals.

A is very precocious and it’s cute, but it more often borders on her thinking she is actually in charge. What is it with kids? You give them a compliment and they internalize it forever. I remember as a kid, someone said I had a good voice and I started practicing everyday in my room dreaming of the day that I would be discovered and turned into a famous pop star. After all, someone did say I had a good voice. Why wouldn’t that happen?

We hate to discourage A from being confident, but sometimes we do need to put a dent in her massive ego. We remind her that we are the parents and she is the child. She responds with, “Okay Mom”, or “Okay Dad”, and runs off. We know that deep down she still thinks that she runs the place. The next person who comes over she will be telling all about how Daddy loves video games so much he should have a video game themed birthday party and Mommy feeds us Diet Coke allllll the time.