So when kids don’t get their way or don’t want to do what they’re told, some whine (this is our son), others cry, some throw themselves on the ground and flail, and some just have attitude. None of these describe Madeline – she has her own way of being defiant. She exercises her defiance using the “sit-in” method. According to Wikipedia “In a sit-in, protesters usually seat themselves and remain seated until they are evicted, usually by force, or until their requests have been met.”
Let me explain this a little more. The other night, Garth made chicken, green beans, and bread for dinner. Not bad, hey? You would have thought we were feeding her rocks. She just stared at it and then pushed it away not saying a word. She folded her hands across her chest and gave us a look of “this doesn’t even dignify a response.” Now, we know not to stuff food down our kids throats and if we are having something that is too spicy, too wierd, etc. the kids know they can make themselves a PB&J. We held our ground that she couldn’t have dessert until she ate dinner. She sat peacefully for what seemed like eternity and then came to terms – but it definitely was a compromise. Geez. This happened 3 weeks ago, and since then she has done the same sit-in for eggs and toast for breakfast and pizza (I know!!) for dinner.
Whatever. It finally hit the fan on Thursday that her behavior was not acceptable. It was our 9th wedding anniversary and honestly, the worst day of 2009 so far. Garth would agree. All I am going to say is that kids don’t care if it is your anniversary, Mother’s Day, or birthday. They only care if the day is about them and my mom warned me about celebrations because my sisters and I were equally awful on those days. Anyway, Madeline had a big spelling test to study for and I had tried everything…every approach, every method, used every creative bone in me and she wouldn’t budge. She was actually enjoying my trying so hard…and was mocking me at the same time by not giving in to anything. Grrrrrrr. My patience was shot. I sat her in our big red chair in the living room and said she could sit there but she would lose a day of TV for every 10 minutes that passed. I also told Garth that I needed to be done with the situation for a while to simmer down. So she sat thinking and I worked on LadyBird. I could hear Madeline telling Garth that she was just too tired to do anything, so Garth told her to go to her room and straight to bed whereupon, she settled in for an afternoon nap. What?! That is a reward in my book. She must have been absolutely exhausted because she never takes naps…hmmm. She still lost 3 days of TV which we get to enforce this weekend. Good times.
In the meantime, I was supposed to be finished with both homework duties and working because I wanted to go to the grocery store and get dinner and a small cake to show the kids how we celebrate wedding anniversaries. I had even planned to bring out the novelties we had – goblets, ring bearer’s pillow, favors, etc. Needless to say, no cake this year. Also, Garth went to put dinner in the oven and there was a leftover pepperoni (from the pizza night) in the oven that either caught fire or was near it so it completely smoked out our house. So I went into Madeline’s room to wake her up before the smoke alarm went off and then we headed to Del Taco for dinner (because we had coupons and we’re cheap like that). We bailed but we also warned the neighbors that alarms may go off and left them access to the house.
Upon returning, our house was safe and sound but still smoky. Garth and I capped off the evening with an argument over Madeline and what to do about her. The silver lining to our disagreement was that Madeline was startled out of her “sit-in” and did her spelling and remaining homework with a good heart. By then, I was toast. I went to bed at 8:20. Happy Anniversary!!!
I feel the need to say that our anniversary wasn’t a complete wash. Friday night, Garth and I shipped the kids to their grandparents and went out for a nice dinner to celebrate our anniversary the way it should be celebrated. I have been told by numerous friends that I will look back on that day fondly and laugh. I hope so.
