Why not have our own BBB Contest? Big DUH!

                          Win A Free BusyBodyBook!

With all the others offering to run a BusyBodyBook contest, how is it that this Duhm-Mum didn't think of running her own contest and giveaway?!   Enough speculating about that.

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I'm finally running my own BusyBodyBook contest. Anyone who wants to enter please tell me your worst organizing nightmare or your "DUH" parenting moment.  I really need a good laugh this time of year! -Hey, you just might win 1 of 5 BBB giveaways.

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Just write your story below in the "Comments" box by Thursday, August 2. 2007  at 8pm EST.  I'll announce the 5 lucky winners of a new BBB on Friday, Augst 3rd. (My son Jake gets to pick them out of his baseball cap). So Simple!

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Don't forget to add your email address - how else can I contact the winners?  (I promise not to share your email address with the entire blogosphere. )

Joan

P.S. If you haven't already, download summer '07 Weekly GRIDs at our website to get started planning and organizing August and back to school!

Comments

[Linsey Knerl]

I have several duh moments a day. Usually it is over something like trying to put a diaper on my 8 year old, or put a ponytail holder in my newborn son's hair... and forget about calling each of my 4 kids by the right names!

[Susan Baldner]

Well having twin toddlers and a 6yo, all boys, gives me many DUH parenting moments each and every day...the best one recently was packing the whole family into the car and headed out a ways away for a professional baseball game only to get there with all of our snacks and giant fingers and realize the tickets were for a different day!! My kids were crushed....did that make you laugh? Hope so!!!

[Kristi Lindstrom]

Hi-
I am excited to hear that you are doing a giveaway. I love the BBB and the new designs are great! Hope to be a lucky winner!

[Maria h]

I think my biggest duh so far was taking my kids to baseball practice ( which my hubby always did) and after practice i had the coach come over to talk to me and he asked me when exactly my son joined the team because they had been a team for 6 mths and had never seen him, ends up we were at the wrong field, wrong team, wrong everything. I still havent lived that one down.And another big duh was i had my niece with me and my oldest son when i went into labor and dressed them in the opposite clothes and took them to the hospital, I thought everyone was staring at me cause my water broke turns out they were really staring at my kid with a buzzcut and a pink dress on and a girl with blue jeans and a raiders shirt on.Opps .

[Cassidy McKay]

I write romance books--seven to date. When my teenaged son (a senior in high school) last year had to do a presentation on a successful person, he chose me! What a proud moment-- he wanted to know all about my goals, publishing credits, being a romance book cover artist, etc.

Come to find out, the presentation he ACTUALLY did was how to rate romances by their steaminess--including words used. ACK!

Proud parenting moment? Not so much...

LOL.

Cassidy

[Maida]

I was unloading the car today when my cell phone started ringing. I put my purse and my laptop bag on the ground while my son was sitting in his car seat. I searched my purse. I searched my wallet. I could hear it, but not find it. I asked my son if he could hear where it was coming from. He said in the car. It stopped ringing. A minute later it rang again. I put everything down, and was spinning around from purse to laptop bag to looking under the car seat. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.

I finally found it.

It was in the front pocket of my shorts. DOH!

[Jessica Reynolds]

I'm not always the most together person... anyhow, periodically the elementary school has 'early release days,' and they tend to fall at random times, like mid-week. Well, one day I completely forgot (really, I had no idea it was an early release day at all), and my daughter had to wait an hour for me. I felt terrible, expecting her to be inconsolable, but when I got there (after the school had called me)- she had been doing homework and visiting with another stranded student. She was in the first grade at that time. I think it affected me far more than it did her, but each summer before school starts, I take the district calendar off the website and add those early release days to my BBB! It helps us avoid another 'incident'!

[Deanna]

The last comment about the softball team reminded me of my most recent duh moment. My little girl had been playing tball all summer. Towards the end of the season, we were to meet to have their team pictures done. We were running late (as always), and when we got there, we saw a team of little girls in yellow shirts - just like our team. And they were already lining up to get their pictures done. My little girl and I ran to get in line. We stood there for a while, and I was wondering why everyone looked so different to me. Soon a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if we were with the superstars. Come to find out, we had lined up with another team! The photographer was running later than we were. I had to pull my daughter out of the line and go join our "real" team. I was so embarrassed. Thank goodness that other mom rescued us though, otherwise, when that team got their pictures back, they might find this strange girl in there wearing a golden shirt (not yellow) and a black hat (again, not yellow) that they'd never seen before.

[Shelley]

Let's see? Organized? Me? Of course I am organized. I mean to tell you that I own every book on organization way back 20 years. Hmmmm well maybe I'm not so organized. Yea I guess not - cuz I don't have a clue where all my books on organizing are right now.
My 14 year old now goes through a checklist with me as we are walking to the car. "Mom, did you remember your purse? phone? glasses? keys?" Something tells me she is tired of us driving backwards down our country road for a quarter of mile and then running into the house to get my ...... whatever I happen to forget that day! I used to make it to the neighbors driveway before I would remember that I need glasses to drive!!!!!!!
Does your book come with a leash so I can wear it around my neck and a bell that goes off every day to remind me to look at it? ; )

[Priscilla Tynch]

Since i have way too many "duh" moments, i will go with how may day went. Not only did i keep calling my boys by the wrong names, i would also try to change my five years old diaper (he is potty trained and boy did he let me have it) and get my 22 month to go to potty. Although i am technically a stay at home mom, i have clients i do bookkeeping for. In addition to trying to keep my paper work straight, sometimes all i can find to write my notes with are crayons:> i have also been known to pull out train pictures drawn by son that were mixed in with tax forms. My fine"duh" moment of the day is serving the cupcakes my son and i made BEFORE serving dinner. Boy, was that a struggle to get them NOT to eat the cupcakes and eat their dinner. IN the end, i compromised and we had spaghetti, garlic bread, saland and cupcakes with vanilla icing for dinner! Enjoy my "duh" moments!

[Margot]

Organization problems? I'm okay except I have to write everything down for my husband. If it's not on the calendar, he doesn't know about it even if it's something he's in charge of like Boy Scouts! Thank goodness I've got the calendar on the fridge so he knows what he's supposed to do.

[Anna]

I had my duh moment when my daughter's school called and wanted to know why I had sent them my VISA bill instead of the permission slip. DUH!

[Lorena]

My biggest 'duh' moment still causes me scheduling anxiety. Last year, my credit union had a special 'members only' day at Disneyland. I bought the tickets months in advance, and put the date and tickets in my BBB. A few days before the date, we started counting down with the kids... "5 days to Disneyland, 4 days to Disneyland", etc. On the big day, we all piled into the car for the drive down, less than an hour away. We were all looking forward to the special events that were planned. We had only been on the road for 10 minutes when I pulled the tickets out of my purse to count them, and I realized we were a day late. My kids still tease me about the fact that daddy had to pull over so mommy could cry on the side of the road! My meltdown shook up the kids so much that they didn't even complain about the mix up, and they settled for a Disney movie instead. And, we made it up to the kids a few months later with a real trip to Disneyland!

[Amy]

I try to be diligent & put things away so my little ones (especially my 2 year old) don't get into trouble.

Well I happened to leave something out on my computer keyboard & forgot to put it away.

I later walked to another room & discovered my carelessness...the wall, washer & dryer, and door were all decorated with brown permanent marker! Ugh.

[Sheri]

Organizing nightmare.....currently it is everything in my house! We recently moved and it has been a challenge to try and figure out how to find a place for everything. I am forever losing things because I've put it in a "safe" place only to tear the house apart looking for that "safe place"! Also trying to diligently organize all the new activities, the upcoming school year, find my way around a new city and keep up with 2 toddlers and a preteen. I need some major organization.

[Rivster]

It's my keys! I can never find my keys. My kids now think that it is a game -- which is both endearing and annoying!! They remind me to put them in the same place every night so that I can always find them but somehow juggling a 7 year old, 4 year old, 3 mos old, and full-time job makes it hard to get even that small task done!!

[krista]

I could not find my keys, which by the way, cannot be duplicated wihout it costing $100-$200 these days. Sooo.....I cough up the $300 (my husbands car keys were on there too!) Fast forward 6 months, I happen to look down into a large pot by our front door and I see a glint of metal....you guessed it! The original keys that I had not lost....my 3 year old decided that was a great place to keep them! Love the Busy Book...I helps keep me sane!

[Liz]

I am not a parent but have had many DUH moments both when teaching and babysitting. Sometimes it's not that I'm so stupid but that the kids are so smart! One little boy, only 2 years old, insisted we read a book about caterpillars. I got to the part about cocoons when he turned to me and said, "Actually, I prefer to call them 'chrysalis'" Boy did I feel dumb!

[Leah]

Our library has weekly summer programs for school-aged children. I thought I was diligent about signing up my kids for each one and writing each one down on the calendar so I wouldnt forget. But some how or another I managed to write either the wrong date or wrong time for at least 50% of them! My poor disappointed kids when we showed up at the library the day after or 2 hours late.

[laura collins]

How many times have I scheduled my own dental appointments on days off from school? Having the whole family's schedule in my hands at all times is the key to our survival!

[Maureen]

My kids are onto me. They write a note on the refrigerator: NEED MILK.
On the way out the door I see a duplicate post it. And because it's a long way to the car and they know I might forget, my steering wheel has a NEED MILK post-it on it too!

I'm supposed to be at the YMCA to meet a friend and the kids are supposed to be at choir practice. We all pile in the car and off we go, singing to the radio. I jump out of the car at the YMCA and my children startle me with their presence; I see forlorn looks...."Mom, you were supposed to take us to choir!"

I need a personal organizer sitting on my front seat next to me....reminders where I'm suppose to be and where the kids are supposed to be.....my memory isn't what it used to be!

[Cathy Schiffman]

Okay, I ordered your BBB book and the refrigerator grid pad after the following organizing mishap! I serve on a Mothers of Preschoolers (of which I have 4, 4 years old and under!) steering team and we had an all day planning meeting scheduled for a Saturday. My husband has to work the occassional Saturday so I made sure to tell him so that he could make certain he did not have to work that particular Saturday. I even continued to ask periodically to ensure he would be able to take care of the children while I was at the meeting. The night before the meeting, my husband came home and gave me what he termed "good news". He said, "They will let me take the children to work with me on Saturday." I panicked! For 7 hours!?? And I thought we had arranged all of this?? You told me you didn't have to work. He looked like a puppy with his tail between his legs (shame on me!). He apologized and said he THOUGHT he had arranged it, but he was mistaken. If only I'd had the fridge grid before that! Anyway, the children ended up having a grand time at work with Daddy! When we arrived, he had two pop-up tents set up in cubicles, the pack-n-play set up in the conference room, the lap-top for emergency movie watching and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch! He also had the wet-floor cones set up for relay races in the hallway! This was one organizing mishap that my children loved! Thanks for your great products!

[Paula in MN]

January 1989 -- my stepchildren were at their mother's for the weekend and she brought them home a day early because she wanted to go to the Vikings football game. I was livid at her lack of parenting skills. I told my co-workers about it the next morning, and became so livid that I called her at work and chewed her out for 10 minutes. When I was finished I said "do you get it?" and the very quiet voice on the other end of the telephone asked "who did you want to talk to?" I said "is this Sharon R?" and she said "No, this is Sharon M. Do you want me to give her a message?" by this time my co-workers are laughing so hard I can no longer hear, and my face has gone 5 different shades of purple. I politely said "No" and hung up. 18 years later and whenever I run into my old coworkers I still hear about it!

[Robin]

Let me say upfront that I REALLY love my mother in law! She is great and very forgiving too. My nightmare day began when we arrived at the airport to pick her up. We arrived an hour early to get her, or so I thought! After being in the airport for 10 min. we heard a overhead page for myhusband. Concerned we went to the counter. This is where my nightmare began. My mother in law had been WAITING for 3 HOURS! Yes, I goofed. I didn't write down her arrival time. I just TRIED to remember it. Oh, my nightmare didn't stop there. No,it got worse! When we came out of the airport we stopped suddenly.
We couldn't remember where we parked! Yes I know. Hard to believe. One month later my santity arrived. Now I know what time every appointment my whole family has. I also used my BB for my substitute teaching schedule. With one child in wrestling and another one in band this is a necessity. Practices, performaces, and tournaments fill my evenings. I teach after school and my assign days rotate. Thanks to BB I have been offered a permanant parapro position. I love my agenda! So does everyone else who ask how do I do all that I do! Thanks Busy Book for organizing my busy life!!

[Cathy]

So many to choose from, but probably one of my biggest "duh" moments was years back. At the time I was working full time as a 6th grade teacher. I had a 4 and 2 yr old and a 6 month old. My youngest had been diagnosed with many allergies, asthma and we'd been using an apnea monitor on him as he'd had several incidents of turning blue. Needless to say, I was a bit frazzled at the time. At the end of my day I had picked up the 3 kids from daycare and did my usual drive home. I pulled into the driveway and noticed that DH was standing there pointing at me. I kept driving and he keeps motioning. I had no clue what he was doing. I got out of the car and he continues to point at the car. I turn to see that I'd driven all the way home from daycare with my youngest son's nebulizer machine on the roof of my car. How it didn't fall off on one of the many turns or stops is beyond me. I'm glad it didn't fall off, but even more glad that the route I took home wasn't one where I'd see anybody I knew.