Thursday, August 09, 2007

The Joys of Parenting OR Is there an MRI Machine in the House?

Is it possible for an altercation with your seven year old daughter to cause a brain bleed?

If so, then that explains the pain in my head after Marley had a complete malfunction after soccer practice. Now, I'm used to her shenanigans at home but this one resembled something out of a cartoon complete with a tiny mushroom cloud going "POOF" right over her little blonde head.

I was in no mood to listen to her carry on. I was embarrassed. I could not get her to talk to me about what had upset her. Of course, she had no problem telling me about all sorts of other stuff she was unhappy about including but not limited to:

Not wanting to be on a yellow team with a stupid name
Wanting to be on a pink team with pirate in the name
Not wanting to be in the "light"
Wanting Colin to come to her practice
Announcing she is not going to practice next week

And so on and so on.

After passing her off to her father upon our return home with the words: "You need to come out here and deal with her," I proceeded to abdicate all parental responsibility and took a couple (okay, fine--three) ibuprofen. I then waited to see if my brain bleed was going to be fatal.

So far, it hasn't been. So far.

****flip****

Lest I make my daughter sound like a complete monster-child, I will say that her coach works the girls pretty hard. They come running in for water breaks two or three times during practice with faces red from exertion and the heat.

I was also finally able to get her to tell me what had upset her. Her friend's sister has practice immediately following Marley's. I had told her after the last practice that we would stay and play on the playground with her friend. Her friend didn't show up and she was upset.

****flop****

Lest I sound like I am excusing my daughter's bad behavior. I'm not. She has a will of iron which I am sometimes at a loss to deal with. But she received appropriate consequences. Hopefully, they will have made an impression on her.

9 comments:

Beck said...

Seven is a HARD age. I spent a lot of last year worrying that I was going to lose my mind, dealing with my moody Girl all the time. Eight's been a lot steadier.

Julie Pippert said...

Oh I believe it is. The 5 year can do that to me. She sways from awesome to awful faster than the weather changes here (and that's saying something!). The two year old can make my ears bleed.

Hang in there!

I'm glad you got out the reason.

I wish I had a dime for every time I said, "It's okay to be upset but not okay to act like that just because you are upset."

Hopefully it's better next time.

Julie
Ravin' Picture Maven

Lindsey said...

What a strong headed blonde little girl!! I would have done then same thing...handed her to dad! I'm guessing she wanted to be on the pink team because she picked out a pink outfit? Oh, to be that age again!

Anonymous said...

Huh. I just walked into the house after a family photo shoot with a very grumpy three year old, telling my husband "I need a break. I can't take this anymore." Funny to come in and read this post.

Anonymous said...

Good golly your seven year old daughter sounds a bit too much like my nine year old daughter - sometimes I just can't get a word in edgewise!
Cheers

Aliki2006 said...

I guess I'm glad I'm not the only one who is finding seven so very very hard. Hang in there!

N. said...

Okay, now I'm dreading my life two years hence. Save me some ibuprofen.

Liv said...

OMG. I thought I was the only one who habitually referred to my brain as potentially bleeding because I have kids... kids who I LOVE very much. But, about the bleeding....

bounced from Julie...I think we might have a similar housekeeping issue going on...

Sheila said...

You know, soccer does that. One game, my daughter came off the field and burst into tears. Now, she's not a burst into tears kind of girl, so I overreacted a bit, but be assured that the intense physical workout can produce extreme reactions in young girls. We've had a practice like you described, and it took all my self-control to NOT drag her to the car. (On a funny note, the parents of our current team had to lobby pretty hard to keep the girls from naming their team "Scary Fairies". Yikes.)