You know you're an adult when...

...your kid throws up in the car.

I don't drive often, maybe half a dozen times a year. So I'm always a bit nervous about it, just because I don't have enough practice to be really confident.

A few weeks ago, I had borrowed my parents' car (eep!) which they are trying to sell (eep!), and was driving home with my daughter in the back seat. And all of a sudden I heard a distinctive little "brup" sound coming from behind me. Oh, no...but okay, it's just a little tiny bit of vomit, and we're almost home, she should be okay for a few minutes...

Then...brup...brup...BRUP...BRUUUUP...waaaah!!!

Right, then. This is no longer a small amount of puke, this is a whole lot of puke. Like, a LOT. And it's all over her. And there's no way I can leave her like that till we get home, she'll have her hands all in it, and who knows what.

I turned onto a side street, and found a safe place to park. And honestly, my first thought after that was to call my mom for help. Then I thought I'd call my husband for help. And then reality set in, and all of a sudden I was in charge, I was the mom who had to deal with the situation, all by myself.

I'm proud to say that I did deal with it, and everything was fine. (The car is still unsold, but I'm pretty sure that's just a coincidence...) But you know those moments, when you realize 100% for sure that you're a grownup? This was one of them.

And then...

...your kid has a meltdown at (someone else's) birthday party.

DD had a rough night on Friday night. Or rather, she had a fine night, with an extended playtime between midnight and 3:00 am. She was perfectly happy, it was her dad and I who had the rough night! Then she woke up at 6:15 am on Saturday morning - likely due to the bottle and a half of milk we pumped into her in the middle of the night, trying to get her back to sleep. Her diaper, pyjamas, sheets, everything was soaked, so no wonder she couldn't sleep anymore.

And then, she didn't have a nap all day. And we had a birthday party to go to on Saturday evening.

So needless to say, I was on high alert for any signs of an impending meltdown, just in case we had to put the cake down and get the hell out of Dodge.

She was fine, for a while. The party was at an indoor playground, and she had a wonderful time playing in the ball pit and on the rocking horses. But the jig was eventually up, and she started getting fussy and crabby. DD is pretty quiet, most of the time. But when she's done, she is DONE, and she gets pretty loud.

I don't think the other parents were judging me, or at least not judging-judging, but I do assume they were watching me (how could they not be, when DD was screaming her head off?). And if they're anything like me, they would have been partly sympathetic (thank goodness that's not my kid, but I've been there, I know what it's like) and partly evaluating (oh, that's a good idea what that mom said/ oh, I don't think I would have said that...)

Again, I think I handled things pretty well. But there's nothing like Parenting in a room full of other parents - especially parents who are strangers - to make you hyper-aware of your own parenting style, and that even if you don't feel like a grownup, you better be darn sure you're acting like one...