Little Rant About My Kids
ep.66 A Little Rant About My Kids
Published: July 1, 2025
Updated: July 1, 2025
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Preface
This essay is simply a lighthearted rant born from the small frustrations of everyday parenting.
Of course, the frustration comes from a place of love.
If you’re also a parent feeling a bit worn out, I hope you can read this and laugh along, saying, “Oh, I get it.”
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Main Text
The other day, I went to Ueno Zoo with my daughter to see the pandas.
After we finished, I asked her, “Shall we take an early break?”
She replied, “I’m fine, I want to see the art museum.”
So we went to see the exhibits, and when I said, “Next is the museum,” she suddenly said, “I want to rest, I’m tired.”
I checked my phone—11:55 a.m.
As anyone with common sense would know, if you head to a rest area at that time, everywhere will be crowded and there’s no chance of getting a seat.
So I suggested we visit the museum first and take a break afterwards.
I was tired too, but standing around in a crowded rest area would be worse.
In hindsight, my mistake was not bringing two bottles of Tiovita energy drink.
My daughter can’t drink carbonated beverages, so the usual options like Dekavita C or Real Gold are out.
To be fair, I also underestimated how exhausting Ueno can be.
As a result, my daughter started to get irritable.
She complained that “there are too few benches in both the museum and art museum,” and I had to agree.
It’s so crowded that even standing still to read the descriptions is difficult.
While I walked quickly past the displays, thinking, “Oh, I remember this painting from school,”
to her, it must have looked like “a bunch of incomprehensible pictures in a row.”
Not being able to rest at noon, combined with the crowds, pushed her into maximum bad mood.
And the final blow? The DNA cookies and museum sable I bought as souvenirs.
She overheard someone saying, “DNA cookies are creepy,” and snapped, “Panda, you have terrible taste!”
But DNA cookies are just white cookies with a DNA design printed on them!
Yes, the packaging showed a Jomon-period face on a black background, which looked a bit odd—but once you remove the wrapper, they’re just elegant, stylish cookies!
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Now for my son.
As I’ve written before, he says things like:
“Panda isn’t that great. The real credit goes to the researchers who proved Panda’s theory.”
…Excuse me, have you forgotten who came up with the idea in the first place??
That’s not all.
He leaves half-eaten rice in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, and then says, “Hmm, I can’t find my rice bowl lately…”
That’s because you left it in there!
When I go to throw it away, he says, “You should have just eaten it!”
Eaten it?! If reheating it was fine, you should have eaten it yourself!!
Being a mother does not mean I’m the leftover disposal unit!
And don’t get me started on dishwashing.
Everyone eats at different times, so I end up washing dishes four separate times just for dinner.
Who does it all? Me!!!
…So yes, today Panda is unusually irritated at her kids.
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Note: I’m not asking anyone else to scold my kids
Just to clarify—this essay is not me asking others to lecture my children.
If you want to gently add comments like:
“Museums and art galleries are usually more crowded, you know,”
or, “If you’re this tired, Tokyo living would be tough,”
that’s totally fine. I actually appreciate that kind of empathy or context.
But sometimes people respond with,
“This is the mother’s fault for not educating them properly,”
or, “You should be scolding them for this,”
or, “The kids are just spoiled.”
Those kinds of judgmental, top-down comments are unwelcome and unnecessary.
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My daughter was upset because she compared the calm, spacious art museums in our hometown to the crowded ones in Ueno.
I explained to her:
“Believe it or not, this is actually less crowded than usual.”
“And for the panda exhibit, the staff have increased their numbers to keep things organized—it’s a big effort.”
But for her, that was “normal” and “just the way it is,”
so she didn’t realize that having extra staff is actually a special arrangement.
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In the end:
Even when writing about moments of irritation toward my kids,
I’m not seeking judgment or lectures from others.
All I want is for people to smile and say, “Yeah, we all have days like that.”
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Afterword
Family—
We get annoyed because we love them, and we laugh because we love them.
No matter how much we argue, no matter how much hassle it is, we still go out together and share meals again.
But sometimes, it’s okay to say, “Hey, I’m mad right now!”
Panda, and you, are both doing a great job—and it’s perfectly fine to feel tired sometimes.
