Aly and I have been butting heads lately and I sense her need to grow up and be her own person. I am not sure why, but it seems like when your kids are spreading their wings they are slapping you in the face with them. I have had to say more than once lately that she had better watch her mouth. The hard part is that in order to grow up she has to do all the things she is doing. Fight with me, her dad and her sister. Be depressed one minute and happy the next. Be bored, act bored and say she is bored about things that do not relate to her. And most of all talk back, which is my favorite.
Last night I told her that I was done with her mouth and she needed to watch how she talked to me. Her reply almost brought me out of my chair, she said "Maybe you should watch how you talk to me too." There was a moment when I sincerely thought about giving her a good spanking, but I knew it would not buy me anything except a sore hand and a lot of guilt. I did however recommend to her that she go to her room as quickly as she could. After she left the room I sat there wondering what my best course of action would be and decided that it was time for a chat. I called Aly out and she sat down and I just told her that I did not know what was going on, but it needed to stop. She shared with me that she has been annoyed by everyone including her friends. She is frustrated because she does not know what is wrong.
Thinking back at that moment I remembered feeling like that (sometimes even now), and I remembered Ashleigh going through that too. I asked her to come and sit next to me and I put my arm around her. That's when I told her that she was right on track with most kids her age. I can only guess if she took a survey of most of her friends, they would all say they felt a lot of the same feelings. I told her she was normal, or as normal as anyone can be. I wondered if that was what had been bothering her; did she think there was something wrong with her. Then she told me she thought she had Attention Deficit Disorder and I told her that if she did she was managing it very well, since she was just honored for her grades. At that point she smiled and laughed and we hugged, which was way better then the chasing her and spanking her that I had considered earlier. It felt good to have a little bit of normal back in my life, even if it meant I had to have it out with Aly. It was a nice reminder that life goes on.
No comments:
Post a Comment