a little venting space

do you want to know what i am a little tired of  today? (i am going to tell you even if your answer was no) i’m getting tired of the two pint-sized girls in my house being either too sassy or too demanding. i know the husband has always said that caroline runs the show and i am getting the feeling that hadley is picking up on that same attitude.

they both pretty much have the attitude of ‘it’s my way or the highway.’ normally i can tolerate this with no problem because the things they care strongly about are small issues to me and not worth a fight. don’t get me wrong, if it were a life or death situation, something that put them in harms way, or something that they just know is wrong, i will put my foot down(and then they run in fear. have you seen me mad!). but that isn’t the case 99.9% of the time. issues of importance to girls under the age of 10 that don’t bother me but do have some amount of significance to them are but not limited to: clothes or shoes they want to wear, hairstyles they prefer, snacks they want to eat, which couch they want to sit on, what toy they want to play with, which blanket will keep them warm, what pj’s to sleep in, what soap to use, which toothbrush to use, what color crayon is best, which color spoon to use, what color straw they want, which room to watch tv in, what book to read at bedtime, or what game to play. those types of things i can let them have their way with without a fight because in the great scheme of things, they simply don’t matter. that being said, sometimes in the end it is the very tiniest detail, the most insignificant little thing, that breaks them which breaks me. those instances drive me crazy because i don’t think i have patience for ridiculousness. when hadley throws her toothbrush because there isn’t enough toothpaste on it. when caroline dramatically pulls a ponytail out of her hair that i just put in because there was a bump. when hadley kicks off the shoe that i just put on her foot because it feels funny. when caroline doesn’t want to eat a waffle that came out a little too dark. when hadley squirms and complains when i have to brush her hair in the morning. when caroline gets frustrated that her sneaker won’t go on because she refuses to loosen the laces. (seriously people, she does this almost every day!) all of these obviously small issues are really starting to pile up and i find myself getting frustrated much quicker than i used to. maybe because there are two of them now and i am outnumbered. maybe because i am getting old. or maybe because i feel like i am always more than willing to give a little but don’t feel like they do the same.

and the attitude! lots of attitude. caroline has that of a 16-year-old dramatic teenager. she is so quick to get mad at me over something so tiny and unimportant. last night she was messing with some of the pieces to a magnetic dress-up doll that hadley was playing with. this made hadley mad that caroline was disturbing what she was playing with. so i asked caroline to just not mess with her sister right now who is sitting nicely, playing alone. i hear, “what! am i not allowed to stand next to my own sister anymore!” excuse me! she goes from calm to overly dramatic in 2 seconds flat. she’s always an academy award winner for best actress in a drama in our house. i told her that i just didn’t want her disturbing her sister, who at the moment did not want to play with her, rather play by herself. caroline tried storming out of the room, and in the process tossed a chair to the floor. i have no problem with tantrums if you take it to your room in your own space by yourself (i believe we are all entitled to feel how we feel) but when you physically try to show your emotions, i have issues. i calmly told her to turn around and pick up the chair, to which she replied, “i didn’t mean to do it!” of course she did. she was basically having the equivalent to a toddler tantrum in behavior and the equivalent to a teenage daughter with her words and attitude. maybe she is somewhere caught in between being a kid/child and a tween. is there a name for this age, the 9-11 range? maybe a tw-id? or a ch-een? because it seems tough on all of us right now.

hadley this morning woke up happy. love when that happens. her attitude quickly changed when it came time to get ready for school. like i said above, she got mad at the amount of toothpaste on her brush (which i know she really shouldn’t be using anyway since it is caroline’s toothpaste with fluoride, hence the small amount on the brush)and she tossed it in the sink. she got mad at her shoes when i was putting them on. she got mad that i didn’t put a blanket on her like a cape when she was in her car seat. that isn’t even possible!

so the point of my post you ask? simply to vent, to complain, and to bitch just a little. maybe another night of interrupted sleep is to blame here. not sure. i do know i’m not alone. all parents go through attitudes, tempers, and tantrums galore and usually on a daily basis. but today, i am annoyed with it.