Children are relentless

As I sit in my car at the school bus stop, waiting to pick up my daughter, my son screams repeatedly that he wants to “go in the seat”.

I can’t recall how it started, but it has been going on for about six minutes. (That might not seem like a long time to you, but please, allow me to trap you in a car on a freezing cold day with a screaming 3-year-old. Your perception of time will never be the same again.)

He has reduced himself to tears. He has had a coughing fit from screaming. I have tried cajoling him, distracting him, talking to him. Nothing works. He has resorted to alternating between a near deafening scream and the repeated mantra, “I wan go in yer seat!”

I had a headache when I picked him up at preschool. I have a migraine now.

And this afternoon started off with hugs and kisses.

What is a frazzled mom to do?

On spoiling

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money.

I can’t remember who told me this, but it makes so much sense.

And so does the list below that I found on GoodEnoughMother.com. (The points in bold are from Good Enough Mother. She elaborates on her list on her site. I have chosen to make my own comments about each point below.)

1. STOP HOVERING – they will figure it out on their own…eventually.
   
2. DON’T GIVE THEM EVERYTHING – they’ll never learn the value of anything.
3. MAKE SURE YOUR KIDS KNOW THEY ARE NOT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE – if you don’t teach them this, someone else will.
4. TEACH THEM LIFE IS NOT LINEAR – sometimes you have to go backward to go forward.
5. LET THEM FAIL – it teaches them how to succeed.

And a little visual reminder…a cartoon that I quite like for its brutal honesty.

Boo boo Boo hoo

Waaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaaaa!

That’s me crying behind a locked bathroom door. It was the kids who had boo boos. But I was the one crying. How does that work?

A trip to the dentist

The title of this post may lead you to believe that I recently accomplished another mundane parenting task. I took my daughter to the dentist.

Rough morning exit

I got home very late. It was the company Christmas party. I was out enjoying myself with my colleagues while my husband enjoyed some time alone with the children.