Sunday, warm, cozy - like a good cup of coffee. Monday is more like pants that weren't supposed to go in the dryer, now 3 sizes too small but are the only clean pants you've got so you have to fight, kick, scream and literally struggle your way into them. You know what I mean?
Last night I had an epiphany. I decided that the way to avoid the ugliness of Monday morning was to beat Monday morning at her (yup, Monday is a bitch, therefore female) own game. I had the lunches all prepared. Clothes were laid out. Backpacks all ready, just waiting for lunch bags to go into them in the morning. Breakfast was already planned in my head.
Everything was going perfectly. I was even about to congratulate myself on a perfectly executed Monday morning. And then it happened. I asked my almost 8 year old to get dressed. WOW!
Please, someone, anyone, tell me that this happens in your house too so that I don't feel like I've absolutely screwed my kid up and he's going to spend 5,000,000 hours lying on a therapist's couch in the future trying to undue all the badness that I've done to him.
He threw himself on the couch and was refusing to go upstairs to get dressed. The clock was ticking. Tick tock, tick tock. The Husband asked him to go upstairs 3 times patiently. Tick tock, tick tock. Then he pulled out gun number one.
The Husband: 'Go upstairs and get dressed or else your DS is mine. For the week.'
The Big Kid: 'No Daddy! I'll go!' (lays there groaning and doesn't move.)
The Husband: 'I'm going to count to 5. If you're not moving, that DS is mine.'
The Big Kid: 'I'm going!' (still doesn't move.)
The Husband: 'Fine! The DS is mine!'
The Big Kid: 'NoooooooooooooooooDaddy!'
tick tock, tick tock!
Repeat this cycle with TV and then onto a 3rd round before he finally put his clothes on!
I'm seriously not sure what's going on with my kid. I'm not sure if this stuff is all normal, because he's our first. What my undocumented intuition tells me though is that he sees us being a lot more relaxed with his little brother because his little brother has a lot more of a relaxed attitude towards everything in general. With the Big Kid, it all has to be HIS way, all the time. I think I may have to take some genetic fault for this one. I may or may not be a little bit like that myself. That may or may not have a little bit to do with why we fight as much as we do. However, I truly feel like he's feeling like he gets the short end of the stick all the time these days and that his little brother gets to have more fun.
We keep reminding him of all the big boy things that he gets to do that his little brother doesn't. I think however that we need to remind him more with actions than with words. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I feel like I need to really look at how I'm reacting in these situations and how I can do things differently to help him.
Anyone have any suggestions, cause I'd really like to go back to hating Monday just because it comes at the end of what's usually a pretty great weekend around here!
I know how it goes! I have a 10 year old that I seem to have to fight with on a regular basis to get dressed, get his backpack ready, etc. It gets old.
ReplyDeleteIt really does get old, doesn't it? I wish there was some easy answer - or at least a guarantee that it was going to get easier. If only, huh?
Delete