Hmmm. I apologize if reading that title made you think you were about to hear some prophetic words of wisdom on how to properly raise up 3 women. If that post EVER happens, it will be when they are all MUCH older and are productive members of society. And even then, I'm sure it will have little to do with me ;)

Today started out with a mix of tears and a large helping of drama.

I picked up Teen and Flower Child from their dad's house this morning and all seemed to go well in the backseat ... for about 4.5 miles. Then it was nothing but shrill voices, attitude, and "SHE WON'T PLAAAAAY WITH MEEEE". By the time we got home, it was all I could do not to heave myself upon my bed and stay there with the remote for the rest of the day.

But I had much to do so I promised myself a Rockstar and got myself out of bed. I started work on a large and very OVERDUE project that is completely uncrafty and unfun so I won't bore you with the details, but let me tell you - it was a BEAR. I was engulfed in said project when the drama reached a peak I could no longer ignore.

I often struggle with where to draw the line on when to step in. I'm not a helicopter parent. I try not to get involved because I think it's important for kids to leave how to resolve their issues on their own and not come crying to me to fix everything. Because then you have the whole "SHE LOVES HER MORE THAN MEEEE" issue and don't think I haven't already seen THAT.

First I tried the mama guilt trip. That's a time honored tradition so I usually try that early on. When Lil Miss WAILED that they would not play with her and that everything she wanted to do wasn't fun, well it just broke my heart. I called up the stairs to them that they were not really being very fair and that WOULD IT KILL YOU to play SOMETHING she likes?! Told them GOOD BIG SISTERS WOULD. It was all very guilt trippy.

Well that worked for all of about 4.5 minutes. I could tell that they were doing what she wanted to do but that they were just IRRITATING the CRAP out of her. Making their toys be mean to her toys, that kind of thing. She was pretty upset in her little pretend world and that just seemed wrong to me. Then I started in my head on how unfair it is that they always expect her to watch their movies, play their level games, be interested in their stuff, but never really returning the favor.

I realized it really bothered me because Teen and Flower Child were not like this when they were 10 & 5. Teen didn't act like Flower Child does with Lil Miss. There a lot of factors that go into why but the fact remains that it's not fair to Lil Miss. I feel they have a responsibility as big sisters to enjoy her at her level sometimes, not always expect her to rise to theirs.

So I called them all down. We had a pow-wow. I went on and on about all of that and how unfair they were being and how would YOU have liked it if Teen always told you that she didn't like playing with you, etc. I reminded them that this summer we would be together and apart for week long blocks and that that time could either go really well ... or REALLY REALLY BADLY. I asked them to think about what it will be like for Lil Miss to be without her sisters for a WEEK since they are never without each other.

I THINK I might have made some progress FINGERS CROSSED. But they go back to their dad's until Wednesday so I guess we'll see if it holds up :-/


But at least the rest of the day went well! We had some errands to run and that included a visit to Dollar Tree. Since those usually end with me leaving in a zombie like state at looks of pity from other shoppers, I was cautious with my optimism. It actually went well. We were looking for party supplies for Flower Child and I did have to tell them at least once to "PLEASE stop talking, Mommy's trying to count" (I can only multitask SO much), but overall it went well and we celebrated with ice cream and a trip to the park :)

My good friend and her 3 sweet boys met up with us there and they ran and ran and RAN.

and ran some more ...


:)


While they ran and played red light/green light and duck duck goose I got to talk and hang out with my friend while we finished off their ice creams ;)




Oh and also fall into a holycrapwhatisthatHUGEballoflightinthesky?!OHYEAHit'stheSUN! induced coma on the table. It felt SO good though! It's been some oddly cold and cloudy and dreary here for what seems like a sweet forever so the sun actually feeling WARM on my skin was just AWESOME :)

And so far so good with the sister drama. It is now Friday morning, almost a full 24 hours since the lecture and we've not had TOO many flare ups ;) We'll see how the day goes!

Now I've got to get to the gym, clean up the house and get packing, we're taking Lil Miss and the Boy to Magic Mountain for a long weekend and I need to mentally prepare what that is going to do my soul. See you in a few days ... if I survive :D LOL