Dog Poop Days

Mother’s day was last weekend and it turned out to be a nice day. Realistically though, I had no expectations of it being anything other than an ordinary day with more hugs and possibly hand written cards by my kids.

I had not communicated that I wanted anything other than my husband to fry fish that he caught two days prior. And he did.  

Still for some reason my children did give me a few very thoughtful gifts, some I actually like and am enjoying. I decided we should try to get a photo of the three of us. And we did take our photo.

I tried to keep the photo low-key. We’re not the matching family type so I let my girls wear whatever they want – Vivian in long pants and a long-sleeve top in neutral colors (her style) and Lana in her girly dress (her style).

As we walk outside to find a shady spot so we’re not squinting, I ask my husband to take our picture. He was working on his boat and not thrilled to stop what he was doing at the moment. But he did and said nothing at all by saying a lot with his body language.

A few clicks later and we had our decent photo.

Then because it was cool in the shade, I walked around the yard.

As I come back inside our house, I smell something. An awful smell…I don’t have babies with diapers anymore but it definitely reeked of poop.

I looked down at my sandals. The first one I turned over was clear. The other one had a big blob of flattened poop on it.

That was it. That was the smell.

And so I did what I suspect many of you may do. I cursed. Then I laughed.

Then I really laughed. Because I thought… what a perfect thing to happen on Mother’s Day – step in dog poop!

So much of life we are stepping in sh*t or on sh*t or dealing with some kind of sh*t. We have our moments when we don’t feel like we have our sh*t together! There are many literal and figurative dog poop days.

If this happened to one of my writing idols, Erma Bombeck, she’d have a clever article written in an hour I suppose. I kept laughing about it but didn’t have any genius words come to mind.

I did think of that scene from the movie Forrest Gump when he’s running and a guy is trying to get his input on a bumper sticker slogan. Forrest runs into dog poop and the guy says, “Wow, you just stepped into a big pile of sh*t.” Forrest replies, “It happens.” The guy asks, “What, sh*t?!” And there you have it, the clever bumper sticker is born.

I think back to when I was as a new mom or even before being a mom – how when little things went wrong, I cried and became upset.

Now I just expect it and can accept it more. That comes with a bit of experience and age, I suppose.

It also comes from many holidays and occasions gone wrong…A Christmas where we had a horrible stomach virus…A Halloween where we could not go trick-or-treating because I was taking my youngest to Urgent Care.

It comes from me dropping glasses that shatter all over the kitchen floor while toddlers and dogs are roaming around. It comes from years of worry, grey hairs and most recently, a pandemic that still lingers in my head and troubles me.

But I am a person who loves to laugh and make people laugh. I seek out ways to make my kids laugh. In some moments of my life where I’ve been the most scared, I would joke to relieve the tension.

I don’t mind crying. I cry more than ever these days.

But I don’t want to cry all the time. Or be upset so frequently that I can’t experience joy.

So yes, I stepped in dog poop. I know it won’t be the last time I do this. After all, I have two dogs.

But even if I didn’t, I’d probably be led into other piles of poop.

That’s life. That’s motherhood. Messy, stinky and surprising.

It’s not picturesque but there are some incredibly, damn great moments mixed in the chaos and piles of sh*t.

It’s how you handle that poop and the attitude you have after that makes life a bit more bearable and fun. Props to my husband who cleaned my shoe for me on Mother’s Day. He scored some points.

Any other day I would be cleaning it up myself. And laughing while I do. Because if I’m not laughing about it, I could be crying over it and laughing is better.