Let me preface this with; I love my kids, a lot.
Now, let's get down to the nitty gritty. A, the oldest at 7.5, is a bit of a player. He's the one who can convince me he's sick when really he just wants a day off. He's good and I'm pretty sure he got it from me, whoops.
This morning was going well. A was dressed for school, his bags were packed, we had 20 minutes before we needed to leave and his bedroom looked like a bomb went off. To be fair, A and Ri share a room so the mess is BOTH of their issues. Yesterday however, Ri cleaned for 5 minutes when asked to and I did notice a slight improvement. So, in my infinite wisdom (ha!) I decided A could take 5 minutes before school and work on the room. WoW! You would think I asked him to clean the entire house including spit shining the floors and mirrors. I got attitude, a lot of it, and the amount of whining coming from that room would put that little piggy on the Geico commercials to shame. 5 minutes went by and I opened the door. Nothing had changed except that my happy agreeable boy from 5 minutes ago was now a crying, snotty, I can't chanting mess. I informed A that he would do the 5 minutes over after school and it would cut into his Wii time. When will I learn?? I should have saved that bit of info. for when he arrived home because all I did was start a war. The boy flew into a rage, slamming doors, melting down and repeating over and over "I can't, I just can't". Now, I've given in to this before and cuddled and loved him back to a sense of sanity but I've since learned it does no good. He thinks he can get away with this behavior and does it again, and again. So today I took the hard line. We all got ready and walked out the door to the car and A was told to meet us there. He didn't. I went in, warned him to get ready.....nothing. He finally emerged with a snot dripping nose and jacket on but not zipped. I took it as the white flag. I drive to school and arrive at the drop off destination. In my head I am singing a happy little tune and looking forward to the boy child exiting the vehicle but, he doesn't. I check the doors, yup, unlocked. Nothing. I remind him where his bags are and still....nothing. Fearing the wrath of those waiting in line behind me I pull forward into a parking space and get out of the car and open his door. I walk him in, he's pissed. I chat with him inside the school to make sure he's OK and as soon as the bags hit his shoulder to go to class the tears are back in his eyes. This is where I crumble. I hug, I kiss, I cuddle for a minute and I ask if he wants me to walk him to class. "No" he says as he starts to walk away. I take a deep breath and get ready to turn and leave when he stops. "well, if you want to" he says. So I sign in as a visitor and together we brave the halls of his school. I'm expecting a bit of a teary good bye when we arrive at his classroom, to me he's obviously having a really hard time today. We get there and I brace myself. A walks in to the room and immediately a huge smile crosses his face. He turns to look at me and smiles as he says good bye.
I've been played.
