KidMitts

She whipped a candy at me. Yep, my lovely little girl went too far tonight. 

Welcome to “I’m a tired little kid that doesn’t know how to just chill out. I’m going to make everyone unhappy because I’m unhappy”. Welcome to motherhood at its finest. Wanna test your abilities as an adult?  Try reasoning with a moody little human. Better yet, try keeping your cool and reasoning with the little human when you’re also tired. It’s a recipe for disaster. 

So what did I do to deserve having a candy whipped at me?  It’s past bedtime and we are just leaving our first baseball practice of the season. She asks me if she can have a popsicle when we get home because she deserves it. I say “You did great tonight but you don’t deserve a popsicle for it and it’ll be bedtime when we get home. This is the wrong answer. Her shoulders slump, she puts on the pout, and stomps to the car. When I get in the car I dig a candy out of my pocket. It was a pre-wrapped mint from a restaurant. I hand it to her a token of good will. She looks at it and says “I hate mints!” And launches it at me. My almost 8 year old just threw a freaking candy at me!!! I don’t think so missy!!!  I scolded her,  she said sorry, I drive us home and watch her sulk to her bedroom while I fume to the kitchen. A few minutes later she says she’s hungry. I refuse to give her a snack as punishment for her horrid behavior. It sucks but she needs to understand that saying sorry doesn’t always fix things and a real consequence will happen occasionally. 

Parenting sucks sometimes. I hate that she acted in such a horrible way. She knows better. I hate that she went to bed a little hungry. I hate that she was sad because she knew I was mad. But this is part of parenting. It isn’t all Mothers Day cards and kisses. Sometimes it’s a little human having a meltdown and learning a life lesson. 

There was still “I love you’s” when I tucked her in. I refuse to put her to bed being mad at each other. She needs to know I love her no matter what. And I guess I need to hear she loves me too. 

To all the moms who feel like assholes when they scold their kids for being assholes. I salut you. It’s a tough job and sometimes we nail it and other times we totally suck at it. Keep trying. We are all in this together.

Happy Mother’s Day.