I’m going to go on a bit of a parenting rant. Please take your seat, fasten your seatbelt and chime in when ever you see fit!
Do you remember opposite day from back in your grade school days? I sure do. I remember attending Madison Elementary School when I was my son’s age. I have fond memories of that school. I worked in the cafeteria during the lunch hour washing trays. My pay? Free lunch! I remember eating in the cafeteria and pizza day – you know, back when school food was still good?
The Madison Elementary School cafeteria had long picnic-like tables with bench seating. The tables weren’t much larger than normal but they placed them end-to-end and stretched them the length of the room. We’d all scamper downstairs and get in line, grab out tray (nice and clean thanks to yours truly!) and go through the lunch line. Oh, don’t forget your milk at the end of the line – we even got chocolate milk on Fridays. What a treat!
Monday was a different story, though. No chocolate milk was available on Monday. Instead, Monday was unofficially deemed ‘Opposite Day’ by Madison students. What did Opposite Day entail exactly? Well, everything was the opposite as Tuesday – Friday, duh! If you ‘liked’ something Tuesday then you ‘hated’ it Monday. If you were ‘excited’ about something on Wednesday then you were ‘bored’ Monday. Oh, and my favorite? Tuesday through Friday we’d point our milk cartons toward who we LIKED. On Monday? We pointed them away, of course.
I am pretty sure my son knows Monday is opposite day because today he was doing the exact opposite of what I was asking him to do. “Please stop banging on the table with that spoon.” resulted in louder and still more banging. “Please don’t splash me in the face.” was met with an evil grin and another splash in the face.
How does my son know Monday is opposite day? I never told him. Is opposite day something that all kids just know? Is that why Mondays feel so much different as adults too? Yeah, it’s the beginning of the work week but we’ve always grown up knowing that Monday was pretty much the opposite of all the other days (with the exception of 3-day weekends, of course). Do you ever feel like your kids have an opposite day, too? When go means stop and stop means go?
Thanks for listening to my rant. I hope you have a terrible, horrible, very bad day!
Cover image by this is markb via Flickr
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My girls tried that on me… I would ask them to do something and they would do the opposite, claiming it’s “opposite day!”. didn’t matter what day of the week it was.
Until I pointed out that if it IS “opposite day” then it really ISN’T “opposite day”… that left em thinking for a while and it rarely pops up these days…
It’s just something about Monday mornings I think. And not just with the kiddos, but especially noticeable in the kiddos. Oh, I hear ya!!!!
Welcome to ALL the joys of being a parent. It only gets worse (when they’re teens – I’ve got two of ‘em so I know very well – ONE Is always a big PAIN!)…
Now that means we have many Mondays here in this house! Hang in there
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I know what you mean, with kids sometimes it seems like it’s always opposite day. Like when I see my DD raise her arm to throw a toy. I tell her not to throw it. She looks at me and throws it. Terrible Twos (sigh!).