Mama Say GGRRRRR!!!

OH. NO. You. did. not.

God loves my children. They have not perished at my hand though not for utter lack of trying.

My eldest is going through the beginnings of puberty...how do any of us survive our parents? The grace of God, my friends. That's why.

It begins.

She screams. She slams doors. She pitches worse fits then those of her 4 year old sister. She seems to be earnest in her professions of not understanding why such behavior is unacceptable. She knows better than I do...obviously. She tries (and usually fails thus the behavior listed above) to do whatever she wants when ever she wants to do it. She has cried all night because she was punished for trying to take things that weren't hers. She had to write sentences. You would've thought we put the child on the rack. I kid you not. She didn't finish before bedtime. She had time to work before church. Plenty of time. Now we stay home because she wasn't done in time because "Well, I just don't want to write it! I never will! Never!" And now, 3 hours later.... Still. Not finished.

I could so use an un-dead monkey to shoot at right now.

I now see why people give up. I understand why some parents just can't do it, deal with it, stand it anymore, and I've got years until independent children. It would be so easy to give up, and goodness know, I really want to just to make the drama stop. But I can't because if I make it easy now, she won't be able to take the hard stuff. It hurts now, but I have the feeling it will be unbearable later if I don't stand firm. I'm angry. I'm tired. My throat hurts. I think I could be more fore bearing if the fits were over things like not being able to eat all day, but they are over things like picking up shoes. Really? Oh yes, really. @#$@%@$%!#$!!!!

You keep praying for our ultimate survival. I'll go look for that un-dead monkey. Hopefully, he's got a bucket of sanity and a pardon from the governor.