After a relatively uneventful day at work, I was looking forward to spending a nice evening at home with the family. Maybe play some games or do a puzzle with Peanut, roll the basketball around with Swanny Jr, chat with Jen a little. To top it all off, I'd stopped and picked up delicious Mexican take-out on the way home. Little did I know what was waiting for me at home.
Apparently, Peanut had a rough go of things at daycare today. Long story short, she'd bitten one of her friends and then hit Rikki when she got called on her behavior. The hit and sticking her tongue out, earned her a trip to time-out. When Jen picked the kids up this afternoon, Rikki filled her in on what had happened. Jen and Peanut talked about the situation and Peanut was told that she'd have to tell me about it when I got home.
When we sat down to dinner, Jen broached the subject by telling me that they'd already talked about the incident and how Peanut was going to try to make it up to Ms Rikki. She then turned to Peanut and asked her to tell me what had happened at daycare. Peanut hemmed and hawed, saying she forgot or didn't know, while playing with her food to try to draw attention away from what we were discussing. Jen and I weren't having any of it and pulled her plate away from her. After more refusals from Peanut (who was started to have a little meltdown) to explain the biting incident to me, she was marched into the corner of the dining room. En route, she started stomping her feet, which got her sent to her room.
While she was upstairs having a fit, Jen filled me in on the day's events. After a short discussion, Jen went to Peanut's room to try to get her to calm down and get her to talk to me about what she'd done at daycare. More refusals and screaming (both on Peanut's part), Jen came back downstairs and a few minutes later, I went up to see if I could coax it out of her.
Keep in mind, by this time, it's become a battle of wills. Peanut doesn't want to give up any info (I think because she felt bad and was embarrassed and didn't want me to get mad at her) but she knows by now that if she doesn't talk, Jen and I aren't going to let her get off her bed, much less eat her dinner.
Peanut's got stubborn skills, I'll give her that. This went on for an hour. All we wanted was for her to come clean to me about what had happened at Rikki's. Then she would've been able to get off of her bed, have her dinner, say good night to her brother. But she just kept telling me, "I want Mommy to tell you," or, "I don't remember what happened," or, "I don't want another grown-up to know."
Finally, around 7:30, I was able to talk some sense into Peanut. I asked her to repeat after me. "Daddy. I. Bit. HP. Today." She followed along word for word, then we were done. All that fuss and trouble for 10 seconds of acceptance. But at least we were able to move on.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Oh my can that girl flash some attitude! The most chilling part of the HOUR & A HALF incident were the bursts of top-of-my-lungs screaming that were elicited by my ignoring the little drama queen as I put Swanny Jr down to bed. I'm afraid for my sanity & safety come adolesence. Rikki & I will have to find comfort in a pitcher of margaritas. Mrs., care to join us in apprximately 6 years?!
Poor thing! She comes by this behavior so naturally that the whole thing is just laughable. I think you can be glad that afterward she did show some "shame" by not wanting to admit to it.
Tell her that her grammy loves her and all of her drama queen ways!
Maybe she's just getting it out of her system BEFORE the teen years???? Maybe?????
Oh Peanut!
Sorry to hear all of you had such a rough evening.
I am SO down with margarita's. Jen, you name the time and place and I will be there with bells on.
Oh hellsa yes, I'm down for the margaritas especially considering I'm dealing with TWO drama queens (Lord help me). I'll bring the chips and salsa.
Look at it this way - at least she wasn't spitting at you or trying to set her pigtails on fire this time!
Post a Comment