Thursday, August 24, 2006

I'll Just Put It On The Pile With The Others

Shef has been a classic two-year-old mix of hilarious and hideous again lately.

“That’s enough crying,” I told him this morning after about he'd engaged in about thirty-five minutes of wailing and moaning over his choice of breakfast foods.

“Noooo,” he whined, falling out of his chair. “Moooore crying.”

Tonight, after another interminable whining jag, during which I counted to fifty and nearly bit through the sides of my cheeks in an attempt to maintain a calm demeanor, I finally shouted, “STOP! IT!” This caused his face to crumple and my guilt-meter to read at dangerous levels. Ten minutes later when he was still a sniveling mess, I said, “Do you remember why you’re crying?”

He nodded pathetically, bottom lip protruding about two inches. “Because you yelled at me,” he whimpered.

Right-o.

3 comments:

Martha said...

Oh wow! Brings it all back. I might as well have used a cat-o-nine-tails to whip myself for all of those "at the end of my rope" moments that wracked me with guilt. Once, after a particularly bad morning that included arm jerking, yelling, crying, and speeding, I felt so guilty and terrible about my mothering, I sent balloon bouquets to the kids at school! When class mates asked Mary if it was her birthday or something they said, "No. My mom just feels guilty for being such a witch." Buying their forgiveness is probably not the best idea. You mean you didn't give him a different cereal?

LH said...

can you believe she said that about kid # 6? i wish i could understand what's going on there.

mi said...

We've all been there. Hang in there!