Friday night was not a good night at the Gary house. I had made the mistake of taking advantage of the wonderful weather and walked to the bus stop to pickup the kids (it’s an 8 minute walk home). Aaron got off the bus in a less than great mood and was immediately disobeying and out of control. The whole reason you may ask; because he refused to share the treats I brought them until he had eaten all of the “color” he wanted. So the battle was on. When we got home a punishment was put in place, and I thought the incident was over – I was very wrong.
After dinner, which was rather uneventful in the behavior department, Aaron again found my refusal of using markers to not be acceptable (he likes to draw on his clothes). Another battle ensued, but this time I decided no matter what he said, did, or thought, I was going to be strong. For a long 2 hours I was diligent in sticking to my consequence of staying in his room until he could change his behavior. It was hard, considering there were 2 other children I needed to tend too, but I did it. I am aware that kids will be kids, test boundaries, and have a bad day, HOWEVER, it is still easy to feel like you are doing something wrong or your child would not be acting like this. Of course I had some of those thoughts that night.
Saturday morning, still a little uncertain about if I am really doing anything right, the best thing that has happened in a long time happened. As I was trying to get everything ready for our morning soccer games my daughter put a piece of paper in my lap and walked away. The paper was decorated with blue flowers and glitter. At first I thought nothing of it because she is very artsy and always is creating some masterpiece. This picture looked no different. It said, “Great, Awesome”. I thought, oh what a cute picture she drew, she is so creative, I hope she stays that way.
As I went to put it on the counter she came by again and told me to open the flower. I did and inside it said, “I love you mom/dad”. The picture was for me. It was for me! I almost cried right there but figured if I did she would think I didn’t like her picture and it might ruin her self-esteem forever. Which would again be me doing the wrong thing as a parent. I just said thank you instead and gave her a hug.
Parenthood is hard, but when you least expect it (but need it the most), you get the greatest joys ever!
