Saturday, February 11, 2012

Testing, Testing

My Charlotte is growing up and it is proving to be rather stressful for her.  She is testing me every day.  For example, last week she asked what would happen if she missed the bus and then she missed it.(Jury is still out on whether this was on purpose or an unfortunate coincidence).  It happened again  when she brought the kid home from school whom I had banned from our house.  Twice.

She makes everyone around her responsible for her feelings and nothing is her fault.

Her fuse is so short that even getting through challenging homework is an exercise in patience for everyone involved.  Her meltdowns are spectacular and always at the same volume so I don't know when to take her complaints seriously or not.  This bites me in the ass when I shove her out the door to school as she is crying and begging to stay home and then I get a call later saying she has gotten sick on the bus and needs a ride home.  It has become impossible to tell when she is serious about something and embellishing for dramatic effect.  Last night she had a meltdown at Sparks when she tried to tell me I needed to make a snack for her class at school the next day and I said No.  (If she wants me to make treats for her class I need more notice than 7:00 PM the night before please.)

My mom tells me that I was as impulsive and spirited as Charlotte was when I was little.  I guess Karma is coming back to bite me in the bottom.

I really want to do what is best for Charlotte and raise her to be the best Charlotte she can be, but I am not sure I am going to make it out of this alive.

2 comments:

craftosaurus said...

Oh man, that's tough. I was that way when I was young too, though I don't remember what would've helped me chill out.

Ami said...

I can't address any of it since I'm not there to watch/observe and not an authority anyway.

It sounds like an awful lot to deal with, I hope that as she grows, she grows out of it. :)

And the consequence of her not being responsible to tell you about treats until 7 PM the night before was that she didn't get them. Natural consequences are best, I think.

Lyssa used to lie to me at that age. About all kinds of things. Over and over and over. Stuff that made no difference... but she just felt like lying.

We tried all kinds of things that did not work.

Then one day I asked her if she wanted to go shopping for some new clothes and to get some ice cream. She got all excited. We got into the car and I drove to the grocery store. She asked why we were there, she had thought we were getting ice cream?

I looked at her and said, "I lied. How do you like it?"

It did work, actually.