My middle child is kind of known around these parts as a "spit-fire". And that she can surely be. She throws her fair share of tantrums. (In her defense I must say the majority of the time she is a real sweetie.) The other day she had a significant melt-down over a very insignificant matter. I told her to go to her room. She would not. When I finally got her to her room, I went back to whatever I was doing before. In the meantime I had the pleasure of listening to what can only be described as "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth". I was tempted to get out my ipod and crank it up.
After a while when the noise finally died down, I called for her to come upstairs for a minute. She ignored me and I called for her again. Then I heard her yell back upstairs in a sweet little voice, "Okay, mom, I think I know what you are going to do." Well,
I didn't even know what I was going to do. I suppose I was going to have a discussion about what had just transpired and let her know that
if she acted like that again I would blah, blah, blah. So when she made it up the stairs I asked her what she thought I was going to do, to which she replied very matter-of-fact, "Give me a hug
." Oh.
Well. What else could I possibly do?? So that's exactly what I did. We hugged and made up and went on with our day. If nothing else, at least my child knows I love her no matter what she might have done. That is a very good thing. :)
