Today featured a screaming shrieking tantrum. Upon arriving back home from dropping kids at school Gleek became very angry with me because she’d carried her shoes to the car and failed to get them onto her feet. She expected me to sit in the driveway and help her put shoes on so she could walk into the house and take them back off. I refused and herded her into the house where she disolved into a screaming shrieking tantrum. After a few minutes of listening to her kicking and screaming and shouting “I hate you!” I picked her up and put her into her room. She knows when I do this she is supposed to stay there until she is calm. Instead she went running for the door and demanding her blanket. I put the child safety doorknob on so that she couldn’t get out of her room without permission and retrieved her blanket from where she’d thrown it in the living room. I gave it to her and she hit me with it. So I shut the door on her and tried to ignore the screaming and pounding.
Howard came up from his office wondering what all the noise was about. I’m fairly certain the neighbors were wondering too, but fortunately they didn’t come and ask. I’m so glad Howard was home because we were able to exercise some tag-team parenting. When one parent is in conflict with a child, then the other parent gets to step in and be understanding. Gleek resisted Howard in that role. She was demanding that she wanted mommy, but I was feeling abused and I felt that it was important that she appologize for her behavior before I became sympathetic. I’m not sure what magic Howard worked on Gleek, but within a minute all was quiet in her room. It stayed quiet for 5 or 10 minutes at the end of which a very appologetic and teary Gleek came running to me for hugs and reassurance.
I love that Howard now has the time and sufficiently low stress levels to do this kind of thing.
Gawds, what a lousy way to start the day. You poor thing. Maybe next time you can get to be the sympathetic parent.
Have fun with the bulbs! It sounds like it will be gorgeous in spring, and make all the work worth it.
You know, you say ‘tag-team parenting’ and I get this image of you and Howard in wrestling unitards, with Howard wearing a Schlock-face mask, switching out with Gleek on the other side of the ring. 😀
Still, it sounds like a stressful way to end the morning, and you have my condolences and admiration that you two were able to parent without either waffling like some people I’ve seen do (give in to the kids), or without being neglectful (handing them over to the TV and retreating somewhere). It gives me SOME hope that some kids are being raised properly, out there – with some of the ones I see on the way to and from work, I’m surprised their parents could figure out how to fit the right parts together, much less that the kid survived long enough to become a total foul-mouthed and poorly educated idiot who uses terms like “WTF” and “LOL” in everyday speech.
And by ‘WTF’ and ‘LOL’, I mean they actually spell out the acronyms or pronounce them ‘dubya-tee-eff’ or ‘El’-O-Ell’ or ‘loll’.
I do waffle or turn on the TV sometimes. Part of surviving parenting is knowing which battles are worth fighting. Today there were principles involved. Gleek is not allowed to treat her mother like a slave or a whipping boy.
And THAT is worth standing up for. Again, kudos to you for knowing when to fight.. and not being afraid to stand up for principle, either. Turning on the TV isn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself – but those ‘parents’ who feel it’s the only solution or babysitter needed are the types who get my goat. Especially when they turn around and blame TV/the media/video games for what their kids end up doing later on.