Bitchy
We had another family over for dinner tonight; they have a daughter the same age as Dutch. (This is a quiet girl, dreamy and private, an only child whose parents are very mindful and calm about their family life. She and Dutch get along very well, in spite of their very different approaches to life.) As the children ran amok, we, the parents, complained to each other about how awfully our almost-7-year-olds have been lately. Apparently their quiet, dreamy girl has been raging, snarky, and defiant. Just like ours!
Dutch has been really awful. Just awful. Cook and I don't seem to have the tools to deal with this effectively. I just hope it's a phase, and not the way she's going to be forever, because not only will we all be miserable, but she'll also have no friends, ever. Sometimes I'm afraid that we're just screwing up parenting so badly that she's going to be a horrible person, and it'll be our fault. I'm pretty sure that's not true, and that it's just, you know, a normal developmental thing, but sometimes when she's stomping around being a complete asshole, I lose faith that we're doing anything right. So it's nice to hear that her quiet, tenderly-parented friend is turning up nasty, too.*
I hope that we're not doing it all wrong. I'm sure we're doing lots of it wrong. I hear my voice when I talk to** Dutch during one of her tantrums, and it sounds an awful lot like her voice.
Oh, and did I mention that Skipper is also awful these days? I dream of a day when I can get even just ten minutes into a day without one of them screaming, whining, or saying something horrible.
Anyway. The kids aren't ALWAYS awful, and we do some good parenting and lots of okay parenting. In the good news, Dutch now has a "space maintainer" installed in her mouth, and Skipper is toilet-training herself. We're looking forward to our upcoming vacation. And, hey, my boots are still awesome!
*However, we suspect that Dutch and her friend are operating on different scales of assholery. Their definition of terrible behavior is likely to be quite a bit milder than our definition.
** By which I mean yell at
Dutch has been really awful. Just awful. Cook and I don't seem to have the tools to deal with this effectively. I just hope it's a phase, and not the way she's going to be forever, because not only will we all be miserable, but she'll also have no friends, ever. Sometimes I'm afraid that we're just screwing up parenting so badly that she's going to be a horrible person, and it'll be our fault. I'm pretty sure that's not true, and that it's just, you know, a normal developmental thing, but sometimes when she's stomping around being a complete asshole, I lose faith that we're doing anything right. So it's nice to hear that her quiet, tenderly-parented friend is turning up nasty, too.*
I hope that we're not doing it all wrong. I'm sure we're doing lots of it wrong. I hear my voice when I talk to** Dutch during one of her tantrums, and it sounds an awful lot like her voice.
Oh, and did I mention that Skipper is also awful these days? I dream of a day when I can get even just ten minutes into a day without one of them screaming, whining, or saying something horrible.
Anyway. The kids aren't ALWAYS awful, and we do some good parenting and lots of okay parenting. In the good news, Dutch now has a "space maintainer" installed in her mouth, and Skipper is toilet-training herself. We're looking forward to our upcoming vacation. And, hey, my boots are still awesome!
*However, we suspect that Dutch and her friend are operating on different scales of assholery. Their definition of terrible behavior is likely to be quite a bit milder than our definition.
** By which I mean yell at
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