A few weeks ago the boys and I went to Great Clips for their haircuts. I prepped them extensively on what we were going to do, where we were going, how I expected them to behave, what would happen if they behaved and what would happen if they didn't. We went in there, hand in hand, and the boys performed perfectly. Especially Asa, he takes haircuts very seriously. Each one sat tall and still in their chairs, while I stood by glowing. After they were done they each walked over and got their reward. A sucker. I paid, they stood calmly by my side, and I could feel the people in the waiting room looking on in awe. We floated out of there and I knew what everyone was thinking. Yes, they had just witnessed the best display of parenting/children's behavior there ever was. It was glorious. I was glorious. We were glorious.
Last week we went to the grocery store. And I could have used a tranquilizer gun. So much energy.
Half way through the store after like the third blatant disobedience I said no. "No, you boys have not behaved, we can not get a cookie at the bakery". Meltdown. Sobbing. People would need something down the aisle we were on, take one look at us, and keep walking.
Adding to the fun, was with this new baby and me working less we qualify for WIC. Yay, I love WIC. Super helpful, super thankful. However, WIC single handedly takes one of the hardest things to do with kids and makes it ten times harder. Oh you want to go grocery shopping? Well, now you have to keep your groceries in separate piles in your cart, you have to read all the labels AND do math (only the 12 oz box!), you have three different grocery lists, and checking out.. Yeah, that's going to take you 20 minutes with your three different transactions.
I try to strategically pick my check out line closest to the arcade games, I load a few groceries onto the belt, I quickly run over and get my extremely energetic boys set up playing on a ride, and run back in time to unload more groceries.
Anyways, things didn't go smoothly. The boys quickly got bored, Asa wanted down and started crying, Lincoln ran off in the wrong direction to come find me... I felt like a mad women. One kid running away, another one crying, another one sleeping in the cart (thank goodness), all while I was supposed to be signing and paying. I felt like everyone was looking at me. And I tried not to think about what they could have been thinking. "Hold myself together" -that's what I was thinking. And you know, we did. We survived, came home, and didn't leave the house for several days.
So that's the way life has been lately. Some days good, some days bad. It's easy for me to get frustrated that I don't have control over my kids all the time. I wish I did and I'm working towards it but it's hard. And then I think "why can't my kids be like this persons or that persons, I can't imagine her kids acting that way..." But maybe I only see them on their good days. Maybe. That's what I keep telling myself.
Buttons come and buttons go. We'll just keep singing our song.
Last week we went to the grocery store. And I could have used a tranquilizer gun. So much energy.
Half way through the store after like the third blatant disobedience I said no. "No, you boys have not behaved, we can not get a cookie at the bakery". Meltdown. Sobbing. People would need something down the aisle we were on, take one look at us, and keep walking.
Adding to the fun, was with this new baby and me working less we qualify for WIC. Yay, I love WIC. Super helpful, super thankful. However, WIC single handedly takes one of the hardest things to do with kids and makes it ten times harder. Oh you want to go grocery shopping? Well, now you have to keep your groceries in separate piles in your cart, you have to read all the labels AND do math (only the 12 oz box!), you have three different grocery lists, and checking out.. Yeah, that's going to take you 20 minutes with your three different transactions.
I try to strategically pick my check out line closest to the arcade games, I load a few groceries onto the belt, I quickly run over and get my extremely energetic boys set up playing on a ride, and run back in time to unload more groceries.
Anyways, things didn't go smoothly. The boys quickly got bored, Asa wanted down and started crying, Lincoln ran off in the wrong direction to come find me... I felt like a mad women. One kid running away, another one crying, another one sleeping in the cart (thank goodness), all while I was supposed to be signing and paying. I felt like everyone was looking at me. And I tried not to think about what they could have been thinking. "Hold myself together" -that's what I was thinking. And you know, we did. We survived, came home, and didn't leave the house for several days.
Buttons come and buttons go. We'll just keep singing our song.
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| Here's some poor quality pics not worth posting on fb but applicable for this post. |
Really love reading your posts. Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWow thanks Jan!
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