Guest blogger Dani Klein Modisett: Sippy cups are for double Frappuccinos ...

"His jacket and backpack are so dirty he looks like a homeless person," my husband said to me on the phone after dropping my son off for the school bus this morning.

Then I hung up on him.

I'd just sucked down the last sip of my daily double breakfast cappuccino (you know, for the calcium) and was perhaps a little prickly. Mommy needs some inspiration to wake up lately and I'm finding espresso beans are exactly the right bait to lure me out of bed with a smile on my face. Not without it's price though, like I said, caffeine makes me a little "sensitive," a little trigger happy with the feelings of persecution and rage. Not necessarily in that order.

My husband claims he didn't mean his observations about our ragamuffin as a criticism, but that's how I heard it.

Sure, my ego was swollen and tender from caffeine and warm milk, but isn't it the mother's job to make sure her child looks cared for by keeping him and his stuff clean? Given that, and I do take that as a given, the question is how do I do all that requires and work and make sure all the teachers get cards for their birthdays, and do volunteer work at my son's school, and remember to feed the bunny, not to mention clean his cage?

Am I whining? I hate whining. I hate when people like me who have enough money to put food on the table and keep the heat on and have two healthy children and a spouse they still occasionally find attractive and for some even more perplexing reason still finds them attractive starts complaining about volunteer work or thank you notes. Just. Shut. Up.

I'm getting cranky a little cranky. Latte anyone?