Tough Day

I know we all have tough days. I do everything I can to learn and practice patience, as most of us do, but some days I really wonder if it was worth chewing through the restraints!!Sorry can't miss an opportunity to throw that line in. I guess that means I still have a little humor left in me.

Today was really no different than any other day. Really. My husband wakes me up 10 min. before the alarm goes off, this drives me crazy!! I really need those 10 min. and why do I remind him to set the freakin thing if he's going to be awake anyways? But I know I should be flattered because he is there with me in the quietness of the early morning, trying to start my day off happy with chit chat...did I mention I hate to talk for a good hour after waking...and snuggling...I also tend to be over sensitive in the morning so this often drives my senses crazy...not always in a good way=/

Next I say in a loud mommy/sweet voice "Good Morning Kiddo, It's time to wake up and get in the shower" Mommy voice so she will listen and sweet so she isn't cranky before she's even out of bed. As soon as she's in the shower my husband usually asks me if I think she will ever just get up on her own? without the routine...she is 12 now you know. And I reply...in a wife/sweet voice for the same reasons as above for the 12 year old!!...I pick my battles and this one isn't on the top of my list today=D

As soon as the darling daughter is out of the shower she tells me in her Preteen/ trying not to get in trouble but still be sassy voice... It's your turn mom! And I pry myself awake and drag myself to the shower. We learned last year that the only way to limit shower time is for her to be hurrying so mom can get ready too. Otherwise she'd be in there till we told her to get out or the water department shuts us off!! I kid you not the child has been in the shower for up to 90 min. once because we were trying to see if she would ever get out...the water was cold and she had done no cleaning, still dirty face and hair. She loves the water and the sounds carry her away. Same thing at the beach. It is kind of scary to people who don't know her when she goes off into her trance-like state and walks straight at the water...she only stops when we intervene.

When I get done in the shower I holler for the towel. Yes we have more than one towel in the house but another thing I learned is that the child never hangs her towel to dry, instead she leaves it on the hardwood floor, unless she knows that she has to hang it up because I will need it next. So it saves the floor, Yeah!! But I have had to use a wet towel to dry off every morning for the past 2 years...this too shall one day pass.

After getting myself ready for the day I am likely to find the darling child on her email/computer. To which I question...Have you eaten? taken your pills? brushed your teeth? the same questions I have asked...say it with me now...for the past 2 years...She replies no and gets up to go do them. She knows what I am going to say...she knows what needs to be done...and yet every morning she waits. So I am sure you are thinking she's 12, what will happen if you don't remind her? Well, first if I say nothing she will sit there the entire day! Yes I am serious. The whole day. If I wait until it is time to leave and then say, alright lets go...she panics...sometimes a full on panic attack...crying wailing blubbering on about how I didn't remind her to get ready. Why don't I remind her she's 12 and capable of reminding herself? When I do this she becomes even more negative about herself, more withdrawn and sad because she has "failed"...so why try if I just fail mom?

As soon as she finishes these things she will come and sit by me on the couch. I know she is now waiting for me to tell her how long we have until we leave. If it is an early morning I will tell her to get her shoes on and stuff ready because we are out the door. The process of getting out the door takes about 15 min. on a good day. I account for 20 min. because if she isn't at least 10 min early for any event she is worried she is "late" and it can easily ruin the rest of the day. Her preference is 15-20 min. early. This is a problem for my husband who prefers to be fashionably late at least 10 min, but prefers 15-20 min. Seeing a pattern?? If it is a later start morning she will ask me every 20-30 min..how long mom? She's 12!!! She can tell time, I answer her, I don't answer her, I ask her for the answer, I write the answer down on paper, I write it on a calender...It doesn't matter...she will still ask every 20-30 min...How long mom?

This is all before 10am. and this is a "good day" yes, this is if all the questions are answered correctly, I do remind my husband to set the alarm so he can wake me early, everyone plays their roll and no one challenges the routine. Such a fine balance, so easily destroyed. All it takes is something so simple as my husband being the one to say "Good Morning kiddo, time to get in the shower" in his dad/she's 12 for god's sake! way and the whole morning can go to shitackii mushrooms.

It is now late and they are both sleeping soundly...darling child and husband...she in her prefect, nothing in the wrong place or angle room and he in a heap on the couch. Her day went as well as it started. He spent the day on the golf course. And I held it together right up until the third time she got up to come and whine about the mosquito in her room...the one she knows must be a mosquito, and it is waiting by her bed to suck out all her blood!leave it alone, squash it with a book(No, not a prescious book) I mean a magazine...what now you can't find it hurray it musta flew away...now it's hiding and waiting for you to fall asleep so it can suck your blood! OMG!!! Your 12 and 5'7" and it is a little freakin bug!!!! Go to Bed!!!

...fine

not a bad or good day just tough on the patience