I would love to say that I am the kind of parent who never yells at her children. Who greets each transgression with love, understanding, and calm discipline.
It just ain't so.
Yesterday I walked downstairs to discover that my seven-year-old (otherwise known as my "challenging" child) had pulled about 100 photos from the yearly photo album storage where I sort them and store them until I decide to scrap them (a la The Big Picture).
Did I calmly greet the scene and engage in a little creative problem-solving and meaningful conversation?
Did I take a deep breath, count to ten, and then perform a root-cause analysis to address unmet needs that were causing her to "act out?"
Uh...no. My response can be summed up thusly:
The walls are still ringing.
OMG!!!!!!! You sound like me!!!!! I am sooo glad my daughter is 22 and has 2babies of her own. She told me the other day, "I was never this bad" and all I could say on the phone is "Uh-huh Lips a flappin and All I am hearing is Noise!" But ya gotta love them!!!
Posted by: Christel | October 07, 2007 at 07:22 PM
Yes...do not feel like you are alone...I can say that I have yelled today (about 100 times). Ack. No wonder I have a headache. Maybe if I was able to do more of that other stuff (and less yelling) all the headaches would stop. *wishful thinking*
Oh well.
C'est la vie.
Posted by: Ragan | October 07, 2007 at 07:41 PM
I soooo! understand that. And I feel so guilty afterward. Replaying the scene in my mind and wishing I had reacted differently. Maybe we will get it right by the time we are grandparents. :-)
Posted by: Susan | October 07, 2007 at 07:55 PM
Oh yeah, I remember those "seeing red", "eyeball bulging" explosions. When I would end up grounding them for the rest of their lives and darn well meaning it too! Even DH would shape up after one of those sessions. (smile) And the dog was no idiot either, you could always find him hiding in his bed! (giggle)
Posted by: jeanette_brooks | October 07, 2007 at 08:47 PM
So glad to know I am not the only one. Some days I go to bed feeling like I did more yelling than hugging. Thank goodness God's mercies are new every morning!
Posted by: Etta | October 07, 2007 at 10:02 PM
I hope you are not offended to hear me breathe a big sigh of relief to hear that you yell at your kids! Haha! So it turns out I'm not alone. I sometimes feel like I'm the meanest mom on the planet for yelling. But I had a feeling that I couldn't possibly be the only mom to lose her temper or to figure out that raising one's voice = being more likely to be HEARD by one's 4-year old.
BTW, sorry about all those pictures. That sucks! I feel your pain!
Posted by: Abbie | October 07, 2007 at 10:57 PM
I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one...we have some awesome honest women commenting hear. Unfortunately my screams are punctuated by a little profanity here and there. It's a bad bad thing to be told - mommy that's a bad word!!!
Posted by: raesha | October 07, 2007 at 11:28 PM
Sounds so like how I would react!
Posted by: kissyj | October 07, 2007 at 11:38 PM
Must have been the bad-children-weekend then. Go and read my story of the weekend on my blog. And I can assure you, that not only our walls are still ringing!
Posted by: Ramona | October 08, 2007 at 07:11 AM
Now I know for sure something wicked was in the air. I was so frazzled by my four year old (woke the toddler up twice! among other things) that I had to go sit outside (with the Miami mosquitos)while my husband settled her down and got her to bed. I couldn't take it anymore! It must have been bad kids weekend! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: sidney hartley | October 08, 2007 at 09:00 AM