The last week or so have been rough with Miss E. Rough as in, every single morning we are fighting about getting dressed, there are tears before school, dinner is not being eaten and several nights she has refused to get ready for bed and just climbed in fully clothed/teeth unbrushed and gone to sleep. Rough. And I know that the more out of control/defiant she gets, the calmer I need to be. Yelling and throwing punishment after punishment at her doesn't work. She needs me to be stable, in control and calm. The thing is, after about 2 mornings of tantrums before school, I have reached my limit of calm. All I want to do is yell at her to "get the f** dressed" when she whines that she doesn't want to because it's TOO HARD. But I don't. Yell, that is. I do lose my patience. None of it makes sense to me. Getting dressed is too hard, yet she's been doing it since she was 2. She doesn't like school, but she likes her teachers, friends, the kids in her class, the work they are doing and the building. It's frustrating for all of us.
I think it has something to do with the transition of the school year ending, summer coming up, Mr. T's birthday coming up and first grade starting next year. And we have talked about all this crap to her endlessly. Still, it drives me crazy. And it drives Peter even more crazy because he REALLY doesn't understand it. I get it to a point, but still. And I feel bad for her. I want her to feel happy, confident, excited about the day and it's not happening right now. It will soon, I'm sure this is just a phase (please let it be just a phase) but for now, we are just going to have to muddle our way through it.
Tonight was Special Guest night at Mr. T's school. My parents picked him up and went to school with him so he could show them all the stuff he does during the preschool day. Miss E and I had a mini-date while they were gone. We only had about an hour but we went to the bookstore and got some new Ivy and Bean books for her to read and then to the frozen yogurt place for an after-dinner treat. I don't know if it helps her or not, but I sure do enjoy having these little breaks from all the issues we have been having. When it comes right down to it, she's always one of my favorite dates around.
this too shall pass... she sounds so like my maggie--and just look how wonderful she turned out--and even in her teens she was a lovely young lady, albeit, still strong willed, independent, yet still NICE and GOOD while being secure in herself. That was the goal for me as mom!
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