Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Where are that girl's parents?


I didn't know how to title this entry. So many things came to mind, such as, "How to be a bad parent" or, "Serenity NOW!" or "Who's child are you REALLY?" My daughter has decided that now is the time to give us a serious run for our money. You know how sometimes you know something is going on for your child - it could be a new tooth, it could be early onset of the terrible twos, it could be a rare pancreatic parasite...you don't know, there's no way to find out, you just know that it's SOMETHING SERIOUS.

Yeah, something's up with RAP. She's doing that fun thing where she cries and cries and cries. You ask her what she wants, and she tells you. For example, some chocolate milk. So you get the milk. You pour it into a cup. She cries for the plain milk. So you give it to her, and she screams that milk is yucky. So you offer to put the chocolate in it (anything to stop the screaming, which is also accompanied by thrashing her body so violently you nearly drop her) and then she cries and cries and cries because her milk is now brown. Or because you put it in the wrong cup. And suddenly all you can think to do is throw the milk at her, which of course you refrain from doing because, after all, you're trying to retain some level of acceptable parenting here. So you put her and the milk down and walk away. That's when the real tantrum starts, which is surprising because you thought that it already was going full force. Wow. I nearly threw a few tantrums myself over the past few days. What this leads to is that I will now do anything R wants. ANYTHING. There, I said it. I'll do whatever she wants just to keep the child happy. Today this included letting her sit on the counter and gnaw on an entire block of cheese. See photo.

The thing is, although the past three days have been dreadful, she manages to throw in just enough absolutely darling behavior to save her life. I really thing she's a clever and charming girl. Of course she's got something going on - we all do. She's sensitive to the emotional signals in her house, even though she doesn't understand the details. I'm not surprised that she's had a difficult time. We all have. It's just the FURY with which her emotions are released. Frankly, I'm a little afraid for the future. Can you imagine her at 13? Me neither.

3 comments:

ghd3 said...

ah yes, the inconsolable, unsolvable mysteries. you describe something I'm sure every parent goes through to some degree, though you do describe it especially well. "the wrong cup" is something we run into often. and i'm very familiar with doing whatever it takes to ameliorate the fever-pitched dilemma and just get-the-shoes-on-and-get-out-the-door-because-we're-late-late-late....

great post. i think you all have the best blog on the web. :)

come visit seattle.

Anonymous said...

Even the 13 year olds are brilliant and kind and hilarious enough occasionally to keep themselves alive after they have screamed in your face about your not moving fast enough to find their shoes for them that they should have kept track of themselves.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
MRL

Carrie said...

I am so glad to read this. We are at our wits end with the EXACT same issues. Cache was to the point that he wanted to take Asher to the Dr. because he thought something had to be wrong with him because he was acting so terrible. My opinion was it was the early arrival of the terrible two's, hopefully by the time they are actually 2 they will have learned their boundaries and will be a LITTLE better.