And now, a Real Bad Mommy from Ancient Sparta!

It was the end of a four-day camping trip with the kids, and we were all exhausted. We'd packed up all the gear, and were relaxing on the beach. The kids were off playing. The only problem was, they wanted us to look at everything. Come see this seahorse, come see this shell. After a while, we'd just had it. We didn't want to get up and look at one more thing.

Finally, one of the kids started heading toward us lugging a rock pretty much as big as she was. She was calling her mom to help her, but it was in that tired fretful voice where every syllable is five seconds long. You know -- "Moooooooom, heeeeelp me." We're the total attachment parent types, but still, neither of us budged.

So she's lugging this rock toward us, fretting every step of the way. Finally she just flops down in the sand dramatically, in a kind of I-can't-take-it-anymore way, and drops the rock next to her. She was fine, but looking at her from our angle, you could almost think that she was trapped under the huge stone. She sits there and commences to just wail. "Maaaamaaaaa!"

My friend rolls her eyes and snaps back, "Mommy's tired! Chew your leg off!"

After I finished laughing hysterically, I told her that I'd have to report her to the Real Bad Mommies committee, and she agreed that this was entirely justified.