Skip to main content

In her mind...in her eyes...in her words...



What does this face say to you?

Here's what this face, regularly, says to me:

Her: You're a mean girl.

Me: How so?

Her: You. Just. Are.

Me...raised eyebrows.

Her: A MEAN MEAN girl.

Me: Is this about the chocolate? Is this about me not letting you eat the chocolate for lunch?

Her: HUMPH!

Me: Or maybe it's the new toy. I said I was not going to go to the store and get a new toy for you today.

Her...jaw juts out, bottom lip hardens.

Me: Or maybe it's because I told you to clean up your toys.

Her: MEAN!

Me..arms waving: Someone call CPS, vicious mom, cruel parenting, abuse abuse! A mother making her child clean up her toys! Unheard of!

Her: It's too much for me. I'm too tired.

Me: Maybe we need to take away the toys, maybe you have too many. Point out the ones you want to keep and I'll put away the rest.

Her: Moooooooommmmmm, I don't like those words! You're a rude mean girl!

Me: Toys need to be put away.

Her: I will...in a minute...I'm playing now.

Me: A minute ago you were too tired to clean up. You're too tired to clean, you're too tired to play.

Her: I. Don't. Like. Those. Words!!!!

Me...

Her: If you don't help me clean up then I will...I will...I will take away this toy now!

Me: Okay. Want me to take it away?

Her...

Me...

Her: NO! This is my toy! I can't play ever again. You said I can't play ever again.

Me: I said you need to clean up these toys here before going on to play something else.

Her...more of the same

Me: Clean. Up. Now.

Her...more arguing, bargaining, threatening.

Me: Clean. Up. Now.

And how does it end? With a garbage bag of toys, as usual.

I'm so looking forward to the teen years. Ought to be a lot of fun. Really.

By Julie Pippert
Artful Media Group
Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography
Limited Edition Prints
Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries
The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art

© 2006. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Comments

Julie Pippert said…
Yeah, love 'em.

Or else.

;)

Popular posts from this blog

Restaurant Trauma in Texas: How eating out prompted a really uncomfortable lesson about culture

WARNING: This is NOT a family-friendly post, aka the warning I WISH I'd gotten yesterday before I walked in. Yesterday was a Holiday. I hope you heard the scare quotes around that. Yeah, when you are an adult here is how holidays work: you, same workload as always, kids WOO HOO NO SCHOOL FREEDOM. Do the equation. The result is the day I had yesterday. If math isn't your strong suit I'm pretty sure you can still add that up but just in case let's say the highlight of the afternoon included me dumping out the mismatched sock basket and telling the children to have at it, in a way very reminiscent of Miss Hannigan of Annie . Anyway luckily I've taught my kids that Chores are Fun! and they had a good time. Later, I cranked up the fun-o-meter on a bank errand by dropping in the Halloween store to check out costumes, and upped the ante on "Mom needs new running shoes" by tacking on a "Hey let's eat out at a restaurant!" My husband was able to join ...

NEW and UNDISCOVERED BLOGGERS: I'll link you!

** Hey please come vote for this at SK*RT to get the word out! ** You know what? There are new bloggers out there. I know! NEWBIES. What's more...there are undiscovered bloggers, untapped wells of talent. But we don't know about you. I know, some people are shy, not really joiner types, don't prefer blog blasts or carnivals and so forth. So tell you what: I'll try to create a link list with some regularity. All you have to do is comment and let me know how to find you (aka paste in your link). Write a brief description of your blog, you know a couple of sentences a la "Hi I'm a mommyblogger from Detroit and I have two preschoolers who are very loud and creative, all funny stories on my blog!" or "I'm so deep I make Julie look shallow. If you wish you could have hung with Plato, come by my blog." or "I'm a guy who likes to talk about motorcycles." or "My blog is all about space exploration." And I'll link you. I...

Does the abstinence message for drug use work?

This past week I've made time to read up about social aspect awareness and education programs for young children in our public schools. My interest, of course, began with the red ribbon program , which I became alarmingly familiar with due to my daughter's negative experience . I read the Brain, Child article ( Scared Straight? Or Just Scared? Do elementary school anti-drug campaigns work? by Juliette Guilbert), which was excellent, as well as the research study that found the Boomerang effect of drug education and awareness programs that article cited (see a fact sheet that provides source citing for the University of Illinois article and also read the original Brain, Child article for more information). In short, our techniques are not working: "Levels of drug use did not differ as a function of whether students participated in D.A.R.E. Every additional 36 hours of cumulative drug education…were associated with significantly more negative attitudes towards police…m...