Thus far I have written about the many happy sides of life with Ms. Morgan, however upon occasion we have some I seriously want to pull my hair our, go hide in my room and tell myself it's all going to be okay moments. Now, I used to see parents everywhere losing their patience and thought psht (not sure how to type out the sound I made) wow, they should really relax... or I would never do that in a public place.. or... so many I would nevers... so many. Well, now I have gone from I would never to I totally would. And, I look at other moms having troubles and completely sympathize - completely.
My recent troubles have occurred on home territory (thank all that is holy for that). I was thinking about it today and it reminds me of when animals attack, except with small humans. Morgan is talented at many things, one of which is the 5 second personality change. One minute - content, happy - next, she is recreating the scene from the Exorcist...
Now you are thinking the following - have you spoiled her? um, yep. Have you reigned over your home with complete authoritah (yes, I meant to spell it that way)? well, no not completely. Have you practiced due diligence in "following through"? not exactly... I put quotes around following through because that is big problemo numero uno. Last night I committed to the great art of following through. I will say the biggest issue with following through is that it requires sacrifice and tons of patience on my part (i.e. not end up in my room coaching myself in the mirror - saying you can do this). The sacrifice occurs when I take away something like TV - well, I take if from myself then too.
Morgan had a tantrum in the morning so TV and dessert had been taken away for that night - oh and the library, I also took that away for the weekend - which feels funny, I am not sure if taking away something of benefit is good? anyway, it's all I had in my bag of rewards / fun things so it went. (and yep, it was THAT bad of a morning). By afternoon, she wanted to convince me and herself that the bad behavior had occurred the day before and of course, that she would be good moving forward. But, I held strong - much to her dislike which caused the night tantrum. Dinner was an issue, so much so that her plate filled with food went into the sink, bath was an issue - a quick rinse down was all that could take place, pajamas were an issue - too bad, so sad, they went on, until an immediate 7:30 bed time was mandatory.
I will say, I liked 7:30 bed time and I kind of want to keep it. I think it has benefits on her end too as she seemed really overtired. Plus a whole 2 1/2 hours to accomplish things such as laundry and cleaning and hearing my own thoughts, ha ha. This morning she woke up in a good mood, asked for TV but did not break down when I told her no, asked to go to Starbucks for a vanilla milk, but only whimpered once when I said not today and reminded her why. She asked for pancakes and I obliged, a) because she did not have dinner the night before and I knew she had to be starving and b) it's a small reward for good behavior.
By afternoon she was more than willing to cooperate, listened as she should, and actually ate her dinner. I know I have not won the war, but I feel like this battle victory goes to team mommy.
No comments:
Post a Comment