Usually when I haven't blogged in a while it's because my kids have NOT been very cute and I'm too darn frustrated with them to feel like writing about them, and this time is no different...except that it's 11:30 PM (way past my usual bedtime of 9 PM) and I can't sleep because I'm so bugged by what happened today. I had just been talking to my sister about her 'Love and Logic' class earlier today, getting some good advice, when Heavenly Father must have decided, "Ok. Now let's see if you were paying attention." Then came the tantrum of all tantrums, compliments of Jonah. I should have known not to take the kids to the grocery store at 4 in the afternoon where all three of them were running without naps, but it was actually Jonah's idea. He saw in the ad that pineapple was on sale for "2 bucks" and how can you say no to that? Well, maybe I'm a sucker. I just thought it was cute and I did actually need produce. However, that trip was anything
but cute. After already humiliating myself by accidentally running into a man in a wheelchair (more than once), I was further humiliated by the tantrum Jonah threw in the store over not getting the treat he wanted (If you must know, it was gummy bears and yes I'm a mean mom for wanting to get the yogurt raisins that were on
sale...hey, I thought I was being nice just for letting them have a treat in the first place!). Needless to say, we went home without any treat at all and Jonah screaming very angrily the whole way home, "Turn around! Right now! We're going back to the store!" And then when he could see I wasn't turning back and we were nearing home, "It's my turn to drive! I'm driving back to the store!" And it only got worse from there. After
sending him to time-out didn't work, I picked him up and took him to his room where he then proceeded to throw books at me, hit me and yell, "Mom! You're STUPID!"...more than once. He even had Ellie yelling back at him, "No.
You're stupid." It was horrible. How do you not take that personally? And how the heck do you handle it? I tried very hard not to lose my temper, I tried to talk nicely but firmly about what his options were and the consequences that would follow...I tried and I tried, but it was probably an hour before anything was even close to being resolved. And then there's still the fact that he said those hurtful things to me and I'm wondering, "Where did I go wrong? How am I such a bad mom that he would do such things?"
Oh yeah, and this morning were Jonah and Ellie's first swim lessons of the summer which they screamed through and tried to run away from (Ellie made it all the way back to the car) while I forced them back and tried to keep Charlotte from falling in the pool.
On an up note, Charlotte's taking steps! Oh Charlotte! How I really,
really love you today!
Just trying to stay positive because after talking to Jonah for an hour about choices and consequences I realize that's the only logical choice for me to make.
