My Weekend?

Well, since you asked...mostly uneventful, then all hell broke loose. Following are excerpts from emails to and from my MIL. As of Sunday morning the plans were to let both my girls play hooky and go to a big flea market (they only have on Mondays) in a town about 1.5 hours from here. We were going to meet grandma and the girl's great aunt, who is in Florida for only a few weeks, hence the allowing of the skipping of school.

I was so infuriated Sunday afternoon I couldn't even call to say we weren't going, I just sent the following email.

Okay, both girls have been horrible this afternoon, everyone is going to school tomorrow. Which means I miss my fun day, but there's not enough time to get there and back in the 3 hours Brooke is at school. Sorry, but I refuse to reward them with a day off the way they have been acting.

MIL wrote:
What did my precious girls do that was soooo bad? We will surely miss spending the day with you all.
This is meant to be funny, because she is SO NOT THAT grandma. She's fun and plays and spoils them, but she does not put up with bad behavior.

And my reply:
Well, you know it was pretty bad if I'm canceling my day, but I draw the line at open defiance. I really thought once I threatened they would settle down, but they didn't and I had to go through with it.

What happened you ask? It was like a car accident, everything was going smoothly then BAM it hit out of nowhere! Apparently, open defiance is my line in the sand, and they BOTH crossed it. Next thing I know Breanna was yelling, crying, and having a tantrum fit for a 3 year old (yes she's almost 9!) At this point I can't really tell you what happened other than I was furious and yelling. I know, not a great parenting technique, but I'm a yeller, I come from a family of yellers and many times I have to yell to be heard over their tantrums. (Hmmm, am I creating two more yellers?) My hubby, who is not a yeller, often tells me not to yell at them so much. Okay, I KNOW THIS, telling me this when I am boiling over (and YOU ARE NOT HELPING) does not sit well with me. I feel like he is being condescending, like he could do it better. But did I mention, he is usually not trying to HELP, just telling me not to yell? Anyway, that subject is for a whole 'nother post someday.

Would you believe, that after I told them both they were going to school Monday, Breanna had the nerve to tell me, no she wasn't? I promptly replied (um...okay yelled) if I had to drag her to her classroom in her pjs crying her butt would be at school on time Monday morning. Is it wrong to wish that she would take me up on such a threat just once? I guess she doesn't because she KNOWS I'd totally do it, huh? If she is this openly defiant at 9, what will I be dealing with in the teen years? And the melt downs of epic proportions, how long exactly does this lovely reaction last? Puberty? Longer? Oh dear Pete, I feel lots of blogging therapy coming.

After we all calmed down, had dinner, and showers I did promise the girls I would try not to yell so much, if they promised to listen better. So far today no yelling. Of course they did go to school and only one is home right now, not much of a challenge, yet.

Seriously, sometimes it sucks to be the mommy!

1 comments:

oh my! sorry you had a bad weekend. so not like your kids. i can't wait for my mouthy teenager....not!

p.s. yes, it's all lower case. i am laying on my side and not sitting up to capitalize :)

-heather

February 11, 2008 at 3:56 PM  

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