meltdown

Do you have kids? If you do, have any of them ever had a meltdown? You know, the ones where they cry uncontrollably and whine and throw their bodies on the ground...you know them if you see one. Well, one of my dear children is in the midst of one. I can't figure out why other than I asked him to write a few thank you's. He is old enough to write his own thank you. I don't ask for much, just the basics. He loves getting his mail, especially thank you's from his cousins. I reminded him of that. Okay, so he is in his room, wailing away. Once he got quiet, I approached him and asked if there is anything he wants to talk about. NO, he says. That is a kid for you. So, I ask him to come and put away his reading book from school..so in the morning he isn't looking for it and then returns to school without it. ANOTHER meltdown. I ask what his problem is and his reply is...I don't want to do what you ask me to. Okay, so the book is mine and you can reap the consequences tomorrow at school. It is this second meltdown that is happening as I speak.

Wait, what is that I hear? Is it quiet? I think it is. Maybe he has fallen asleep, which would not be a good thing. Or maybe he is playing hangman again....instead of thinking about the way he was behaving. Either way, I should be the parent and go and see. brb

Now, as I got up and rounded the corner to the bedrooms, my son came around the corner and hugged me while he said, I am sorry, Mom, for yelling at you and throwing a fit. That, to a parent, is a sign that we just may have done something right while we were parenting. My son and I talked and we did get through two thank you's...which, by the way, he came up with the wording on his own and is much longer than I was going to recite. So, the worst is over for today, at least I hope so.

Maybe I should leave you with this....the well known saying....

One hundred years from now...it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.