Monday, April 07, 2008

ALERT: Mean Mom Loose in Okemos, Michigan

Children in Okemos, Michigan are in the midst of spring break, enjoying a hard earned eleven day vacation. Some youngsters are being treated by their parents to exciting trips to far-away places. Others are engaging in extended play time with school friends, staying up much past usual bedtimes, and even sleeping in until noon.
Sources have learned, however, the children of Karen Hossink are not among these lucky youngsters.
Mrs. Hossink was spotted Sunday afternoon in her yard, raking several years' worth of dead foliage from once-beautiful gardens. "Mr. Small never did any garden work," said Hossink's neighbor. "He mowed the grass and that's it." Hossink just sighed and went back to work, wishing the previous owner of her home would have kept up with the yard work better.
All this yard work meant nothing to Mrs. Hossink's children Sunday. They played happily, hardly noticing the work their mother was doing. It wasn't until her trip to the grocery store Monday, and a purchase of ten yard-waste bags, that the Hossink children smelled their doom.
On this Monday afternoon, when other children on spring break were playing on warm beaches in Florida or California, were eating their fill of pizza at Chuck E. Cheeses, or were rushing down the slide at some wonderful in-door water park somewhere, the Hossink children were helping their Mean Mom stuff ten yard-waste bags full of sticks, dead leaves, and rotting foliage.

Young Matthew bailed on them early on, but Elizabeth and Joshua were troopers right up to the end. Though, the end isn't really the end. Sources say the reason Mrs. Hossink allowed her children to stop working was not because they complained of being tired, not because they were getting scraped by sticks and prickers, not because high winds made it difficult to fill the bags, but simply because they ran out of bags. More yard waste remains on the ground and sources say, when she gets back to the store to purchase more bags, Mrs. Hossink will be enlisting the help of her children to finish the job.

Although Karen Hossink has admitted to making her children work during their spring break, thereby accepting the label of Mean Mom, it is believed she is harmless to other children. Those individuals who had previously asked Mrs. Hossink to watch their children for a few hours later this week should proceed with their plans, without concern for the well-being of their precious off-spring. Mrs. Hossink promises she will abide by all applicable child labor laws from here on out.

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19 comments:

Heather {Desperately Seeking Sanity} said...

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!

WE have some work to do too if they would like to come here... :D

Julie said...

Oh, I thought I was the only mean mom on the earth....and I thought MY kids were the only kids who didn't get to do ANYTHING for Spring Break.

I guess we share the title! : )

Thanks for stopping by my blog and your kind words.

Julie

Anonymous said...

You crack me up!! That is so funny, well written:) Have a great spring break, Great kids you have.
Deb

km said...

Ok...so my kids are still young enough to get excited about chores...and don't quite understand the value of $1. But, they've been soooo excited to do chores for me this week. I'm paying them 25cents for every task. And ALL their money is going to buy tank tops for Focus on the Family's TANKS A LOT (they're sending tank tops to an orphanage in Uganda.) Tomorrow we go shopping for tank tops. And I escaped the Mean Mom title this time. They're all so excited.

Stacey said...

Oh, our kids would have a great time comparing their pains!

Jenileigh said...

LOL! I love it! ;)

concerned parent said...

I love the way you wrote that!!
We did not go anywhere fun either, just trips in the same town (cheaper) and mean mom awards are handed ourt everwhere, our son has logged 7 or so hour of drive time this weekend, thus ending the mom can I drive question. I thought we paid the instructor to teach him? times have changed since I learned to drive.

Jodi said...

You go mean mom!!! LOL We have some yard work to do as well, so I will be right there with you in being the "mean mom".

Jenny said...

How funny! I'm a mean mom right now-son is having to do the dishes instead of watching TV.

luvmy4sons said...

Too funny! You go mom! It builds character!

Anonymous said...

Good to know I am not the only one. My oldest just finished his spring break and he talked about all the exciting things the other kids were doing. We could have gone to the moon and I don't think it would have topped the other kids trips :)
Blessings

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to thank you for your ministry the other day at our MOPS in Gurnee.

Today has been a horrible day and my poor boys are getting the brunt of their mommy's bad mood. There was a moment where I was tired of hearing "moooommmmmiiieeee" whined in the back of the car and I nearly snapped, but I remembered what you said "God, what are you trying to teach me through this right now?"...Now, it didn't make the whining stop, but it did make the Mommie stop from yelling.

Thanks! If I could just learn to do that more often we'd be ok....

~ Valerie Carr (Bramwell's mommy)

Shawna said...

Hilarious!! I'll bet they didn't even get paid!!

Mary Beth said...

I am sooo thankful there is another mom in the "Mean Mom" club!

Prayed for you last week. I am glad it went well in the windy city!

Have you caught up on your sleep yet?

Speaking Thru Me Ministries said...

hey girl - i love the mean mom - you keep doing it!!! and me too!

did you get my last email about your application?

thanks, Leigh

ThreeGirlyGirls said...

I thought I left a comment on this.....maybe I didn't??? Or maybe I'm just loosing my mind!! =)

This was great! So funny!! I love your ability to find the humor in it all! As I said during a P31 skit during my bible study, "Surely if I'm not crying about the days to come.....I am laughing too!"

She Rose Up said...

Cute post! Happy times! Work first, play later! Less fighting then, because the play is so much more satisfying after all the hard work!

She Rose Up said...

oops! I almost forgot! Smart Mama!

:)

Unknown said...

Great post :)