Saturday, July 4, 2009

another one of those posts that shouldn't even be written

A was gone all week, visiting with Jason's side of the family. We all missed her. I was so excited to collect her today.

Within moments of her stepping foot into the house, we had an explosion, followed by another and another and so on. We had more fighting and yelling in the first two hours she was home, than we had all week. The entire day was a disaster.

We had lunch. We made festive hats. We went to a parking lot carnival and the kids rode death trap rides operated by people who have never known the luxury of dental insurance. We listened to a live band, made crafts and received balloons, and walked to a pizza joint, where we ate outside. Through it all, A screamed at the boys, at Jane, and at me and Jason, although mostly she screamed at the boys -- nagging them for everything they were not doing up to her standards.

We gave up and went home.

We offered a second chance -- A wasn't the only annoying one on this adventure. G was a bit whiny, and Janie has been unbearably whiny all week. But the second chance -- a movie party in the minivan in the driveway (woohoo!) -- ended the same way. There was a lot of crying, and screaming, and fighting, and we had to pull the plug.

More screaming and crying.

Inside, all the nagging and whining and screaming continued. We decided we couldn't put ourselves through any more fireworks tonight. We put the kids to bed and sat in our living room listening to the muted explosions from downtown.

We had such a fun day planned. I'm pissed that it turned out to be so awful. I'm bitter that we spent our 4th of July listening to our children whine and scream at each other. Hell.
Posted by Jen at 10:50 PM
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11 comments:

  1. I feel your pain, and it makes you feel awful when you missed a kid so much and they come home being terrible. My nine year old went away to my parent's house alone for a few days by herself for the first time a few weeks ago. She was indulged and spoiled and made the center of attention there, we missed her, the other kids called her twice a day to see what she was doing and they weren't even jealous, just excited for her! She came home and for a week we had to deal with "spoiled brat syndrome" while she was reminded that she is not the center of the universe and that there are loads of people in this family just as important as she is. Good luck with A!
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  2. Oh crap. I am so sorry. This has happened to us before, when we had planned fun things and then the kids are just grumpy and whiny and terrible to be around. Its very depressing. Its the part of parenting that I find the most difficult. I hope today goes loads better. Otherwise, I'm running over there to kidnap you. I might do that anyway.
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  3. Our 4th ended with AN HOUR AND A HALF spent sitting in the exact same spot trying to get out of the parking lot while H screamed, "wah, wah, wah" over and over again at the top of his lungs. Leila was tired of her car seat and cried non stop. BB fell asleep with his head on TLL's lap, but, he is really heavy so she woke up screaming. The dogs messed in the house while we were gone. Hubby went apesh*t when he saw the mess. The short version is, I promise you didn't miss out too much on the fireworks...in fact I may be jealous.
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  4. Dave's kids (especially the little one) are always unbearable brats when they come back from extended vacations with other people.

    I feel your pain.
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  5. I find that when I am looking forward to a fun day with the family it will go to hell in less than an hour. We watched the fireworks from our yard happily for about 45 minutes last night and then little K lost her ever-loving mind because I had the gall to spray (natural) bug repellant ON HER NIGHTGOWN! Oh dear heaven. For the screaming that ensued you would have thought I doused her in lighter fluid. It was a quick trip to "Ok - we're done. Bedtime." I guess I should be grateful to have seen fireworks at all. It was the first year in about 7 that I actually saw more than 5 minutes before a child imploded.

    Family events are NEVER EVER as much fun as my head thinks they will be. Never. Ever.

    I feel you pain.
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  6. It's almost like the more you do for your kids, the more toys you give them, the more special things they do, the more they will expect them and not be thankful for what they get. Give them a cardboard box with to play and peanut butter for every meal and they're happy as clams...and so is mom. Give them a special day with all the bells and whistles and they are unbearable. I don't get it.
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  7. I am sorry you had such a lousy day. I think the best lesson that I have learned in parenting and the hardest one to remember, is to blow all expectations out the window.
    Otherwise, every day seems a little like hell.
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  8. If it makes you feel any better, when one of my four kids leave for even overnight, they return and act all cranky and whiney and wonder why the world is not still revolving around them. Take heart, it happens to all of us. I guess they have a hard time readjusting to real-life. And, if I'm totally honest, when I return from being away, so do I. I just try not to whine and carry on...well, too much (ha!)...
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  9. I really think it's a big sister thing. We went and visited my parents in Springfield this weekend. Maeve spent the entire W/E bossing around her brother and her 4-year old cousin (or bitching at them that they weren't doing what she wanted). I seriously wanted to slap her by this morning (not that I ever would). We left her there and came home, grammie is bringing my kids home Tuesday, I'm sure I'll want to kill them by then. Sorry that your 4th wasn't idyllic. If it's any consolation it poured rain where we were!
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  10. I have just started a very strict schedule here at the house. I mean down to the half hour. Our fun summer of carefree living typically turns into too many tantrums to count and I'm tired of it. The more choices and fun I give to my toddler the bigger the tantrums as I'm getting her ready for them or we're leaving for home. I'm reading a sleep book for babies and toddlers and I am going to instill every single suggestion because I'm tired of arguing (it isn't just about sleep). You might want to check it out and see if it helps you out. I'll let you know how it goes here. "Sleeping through the Night" by Jodi Mindell. Hell, they're not going to remember any of this anyway, but you will, so might as well keep your sanity.
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  11. I thought I commented on this post! I think it got stuck in a cyber-crack and wouldn't go through.

    I'm sorry it sucked. If it's any consolation, we just started taking our kids out in public. Very seldom did we take all three out when Zoe was a baby. It would all fall apart and we'd all start crying and blubbering and teetering on the precipice of a psychotic break. WE've just in the past 6 months started taking them on errand trips. And we've never taken them to see fireworks until this year.

    So, you're cool. You're cool.
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THE DAYS ARE LONG, BUT THE YEARS ARE SHORT.