21 September 2010

The Eye of a Needle Would Be Easier Than This

I have so much to do this morning, in a very short space of time. But I always have to time vent, it seems.

Today, I feel like my children are ungrateful and spoiled. Entitled and inflexible. Lazy and negative. Nay-sayers and buzz-kills. Nasty, brutish and short.

I'll be honest: when I am working hard to provide them with opportunities, relaxation and inspiration, and I am met with sour faces, complaints and resistance, I get extremely pissed off.

But what's the right response here? Yelling is definitely a fall back position; I'm pretty good at the indignant, guilt-inducing tirade. Unfortunately, I am the adult in this situation, and it's my job to guide them through the day, hopefully feeling good about themselves and having learned a thing or two.

I do want them to feel good about themselves; I want those positive feelings to come from having played and worked hard, helped their family, cooperated with mum, and experienced what it's like to engage the world positively.

It's all I can do to keep myself from screaming at them. Well-placed yelling is just that: well-placed and deserving. But I'm teetering back and forth between patience and righteous indignation.

We are off to a homeschooling science class this morning, after I (with their extremely reluctant help) finish cleaning up our Sonoma home-away-from-home so my folks come home from their trip to Ireland and find their house nearly as they left it. They will fight me on nearly everything I will ask them to do in the next two hours.

How will I respond?

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3 comments:

Teacher Mommy said...

OH BOY do I get this. I understand exactly what you mean. Especially with all the crap that went on with The Dark One recently.

Unfortunately, I don't really have an answer. Maybe...maybe they need to go without certain things for a while? Maybe try that experiment that the Huxtables did with their son on the Cosby show where they gave him a taste of the real world? It worked for them...

Sigh. If only life worked like a half hour sitcom.

Hang in there. And let me know if you figure it out...

Homemaker Man said...

Flame Thrower

Kerri said...

bribes work for me...and I've had to cancel their attendance at birthday parties if no chores are finished in the allotted time.
Threats and bribes....it's better than screaming and whoopings!

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