I’m not quite sure what the actual time is here on the west coast, but my computer (who still thinks I’m in Wisconsin) says it’s 1:30 in the morning. But I can’t sleep, and the internet is asleep too. So I think I’ll blog.
Side note - I had this deep thought today - blogging is like busking. Which as a fiddler, I’ve done a bit in my day. I stand out there on the street of Intra and Web, playing my crazy tunes, and nice passersby drop comments like spare change into my violin case. And I eat every single one up like candy. Dang I like blogging.
Anywho, today was one of THOSE days. The kind where poor WonderGirl is all out of her element and crazed and acts like the 17 year-old I’m terrified she’ll be. I stick to my guns and try, but heaven knows I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing and if it is doing any good at all, besides taking years of the end of both our lives.
Case in point - tonight at dinner, she had another a-tt-i-t-uuude. Remember how she’s a picky eater, and I decided to not make food a battle? The rule is you sit there for dinner (family time), and eat if you want. If you refuse to eat it fine, but you aren’t eating until the next meal. We made wontons, these fantastic, brilliantly made (I helped!) wontons. And she sits down and starts to whine. It’s the whining stage right now, by the by. Oh joy. I remind her of our rule, but she whiiined and whiiined that she wanted something else to eat. Which she wasn’t going to get, of course - I never give her something else to eat, why should today be any different?? So I would ask her to stop whining and change the subject but she sat there fuming, boiling mad until she decided to go for the big guns - she plugs her nose and shouts “This food is stinky!” Right in front of my fabulous aunt and uncle who made it. Now THAT was across the line, so I dragged (literally, I think) her into the house and gave her a time out (mine aren’t those cute sit-on-the-naughty-stool kind) and gave her a toungue lashing. About how no matter how bad your mood is, you don’t get all mean to random people. And other such things. We’ve been learning about the Golden Rule and this worked its way in there nicely. She had to go apologize, and was allowed to sit at the table again as long as she was nice (that means no hysterical screaming. That’s how low my standards are now. GAH ). And of course she ended up trying it after a little while on her own. She didn’t dig it, but she wasn’t mean. She also didn’t get anything else to eat, but that wasn’t the point.
But here’s my conundrum… this is not the first time something like this has happened. She’ll get totally upset every now and then about something she doesn’t like, and no amount of positive attention or sense will clear things up. It’s not until she has been punished and screamed hysterically for a while that she will calm down and try another alternative. This can’t be healthy. I really really hope someone out there has had a 3 year-old that was this nuts and turned out smashingly, because I’m crazy nervous. I have a friend with 3 daughters, of which two are good arrows but one is into all kinds of bad stuff. The parents are good, the other two are good, how did the one end up so far from that?
I’m good, my husband is good, I try, I really try, and yet I’m terrified it won’t be enough and one bad influence will be enough to turn her angry and away from my family and I’ll be a poor, sobbing mess in some bus station somewhere looking for my dear, sweet WonderTeenager who has run away from home after I forced her to do chores and eat a carrot and now she’s out there somewhere, selling crack to nuns and preschoolers and considering a marketing degree.
I’m serious. Ask anyone who has seen this 3 year old in full tantrum action and tell me that isn’t a distinct possibility.
Maybe I should get some sleep. Tomorrow looms…
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