by For the most part, we’re pretty rational in this house. Aaron and I aren’t really the sort of people to lose our tempers and get loud, it’s pretty rare that we have even a resemblance of a yelling match. But we are a far from perfect household and once in a while, things get loud.
Friday I had to have my elbow drained out. I’ll spare the icky details, but the long story short is that I’m in a sling for a few days. Aaron was home from work on Friday, so I thought I’d load up on groceries before I picked up Averie and came home and he could help put them away.
Except he wasn’t home when we got home – not a big deal as I had Averie as a helper. She helped me carry the bags in and put the things that needed to go into the fridge away. Then I got annoyed at the state of the living room and we picked up the mess. By the time that was over, I had exhausted myself and was just a little irritable.
So I start a movie on Netflix for Averie and she says something I can’t understand about the potty… given her red in the face look, I decide to jump up and tell her to go to the potty.
“Stop asking me!” is her response, which usually means she’s either had, or about to have an accident.
“Let’s go now, quick, hurry!!”
“NO I DON’T HAVE TO GO”
And there started the yelling. I’m not sure how many times we went back and forth, but I was frustrated to the point that I eventually yelled back.
“FINE! GO TO YOUR ROOM, SIT IN TIME OUT AND POOP IN YOUR PANTS, I DON’T CARE!!”
Of course, I immediately felt terrible. She went straight into her room into the time out chair while bursting into tears. I half shut the door behind her and lasted about 2 seconds before I opened it back up and pleaded…
“Will you please just try to go potty now?”
She nodded her head and walked to the bathroom. She tried. And she didn’t go. So really, the yelling was all pretty pointless… And I felt even more miserable.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you, Bug”
“I’m sorry I yelled too Mommy.”
“Lets promise not to yell anymore this weekend okay?”
“Okay Mommy, I promise not to yell”
“I promise not to yell too. Are you okay?”
“Yes Mommy, wanna play ponies?”
I sure wish grownups were half as forgiving and understanding as three year olds! And I sure wish I could remember how miserable it feels after you yell at each other BEFORE the yelling commenced in the first place…
Needless to say, we haven’t had another yelling match this weekend and she’s been extraordinarily helpful with picking things up and cleaning. She even volunteered to dust off the TV stand after she saw the layer of dust on it.
I’m sure this won’t be the last yelling match we have in our house by far… I can only hope we can always be so forgiving in the end when all is said and done. Something tells me the teenage years won’t always end so smoothly….
Awe . . . yep there will be more and they will not always be as easy but man I wish it could be that easy when we grow up. Sometimes it is just we are to tired to be nice to each other at that moment in time.