Tattletales

It was one of those Murphy's Law mornings and I was wavering between calling an adoption agency and just walking out the front door and letting them fend for themselves.

I was trying to brush Annabella's hair and she was squirming and whining. They say that when adolescent girls turn against their mothers it's completely natural. It's all part of a healthy separation. But I'm convinced that it's because mothers are the ones that have to force their daughters to sit still so they can brush the knots out of their hair every morning for the first half decade of their lives.

Let's step back a moment. Before I sat Annabella down for hair torture, I had patiently asked Huck seventeen thousand times if had to go to the bathroom and each time he insisted that he did not. I'm in the middle of working out the last knot when Huck walked up to us and smiled and said, "I just peed in my pants."

That's when I slammed Annabella's hairbrush down on the carpet and it broke in two pieces.

Silence.

It's hard to tell who was the most surprised by this. There was a general shock and awe all around. I apologized to everyone for losing my temper and calmly took Huck to the bathroom, reassuring him that "accidents happen" and that my frustration had nothing to do with him forgetting to tell me that he had to go to the bathroom. Then we went about our day hoping that we could all put this momentarily lapse behind us.

Yeah, right.

That night after Marco and I put the kids to bed and we were cleaning up the living room, I found the sad pieces of the broken hairbrush.

Me: Did you see what I did to the hairbrush?

Marco: Yes, and I got a full report from each of the kids on how it happened. Annabella said it happened because you lost your temper. Milo said it happened because you were "frusterrrated" (he pronounces the word with four syllables, as Milo would.) And Huck said it happened because he peed.

Comments

[Vicki]

Trust me, m'dear, there is no way in hell you will get through this child raising thing without losing it occasionally. They drive you to it ;) Mine have survived and so have I. You and they will, too **hug**

[debinsf]

oh. It can be so rough at times. I've lost patience in a big way a few times. It just gets to be too much. Sometimes, we all end up crying. But, it starts things over and we put the madness behind us.

I will hope things get calmer for you, but do they ever? very, very best...

[Ruth H]

Frankly, I say GOOD FOR YOU!! An occasional
emotion from Mom is just what the doctor ordered. It will probably remind both boys that you really don't like them peeing in their pants, without them taking it personally, so they may strive not to do it. And having lived through at least 10 years of having my hair brushed and of brushing my daughters hair, I can tell you either one is rough. The good news is that for my granddaughters their is Tangle Free to spray on the hair. It really helps.
Good luck with all of the above.

[choice]

No one tells you how hard this parenting stuff is, nor that you will wind up feeling like an *sshole at least three times every week. It sucks. But the more parents who tell these stories, who admit to being imperfect, to being simply human, the better.

But if you need some uplifting, read these comments:
http://www.finslippy.com/finslippy/2008/01/give-me-your-wo.html

[Jen]

Tattle tales indeed! :)

[Sleepynita]

I would have got my money back for the brush. Darn cheap thing.

:)

I hate days like that and I only have 1 kid!

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