My son was being snide and egging on my daughter. My daughter was "poking the bear" and trying to tell my son he was wrong.
The "best part" was that my daughter had a friend over to spend the night. Every five minutes I was breaking up a brawl between my son and my daughter. I felt so sorry for the friend.
Finally I got my middle daughter to take the friend to her room and, hopefully, have the friend have a little bit of fun while she's here. Otherwise, I'm afraid she would have gone home feeling like she had been at a live taping of a reality show.
The topper, though, was when I called my two warriors down and very calmly explained to them that this fighting had to stop. Their eyes glazed over, since this has been my mantra for at least a year now, as their fighting has escalated.
My announcement got their attention, though: My son will be moving his bed into my daughter's room until they can learn how to get along. Until then, there will be no sleep-overs. And they will continue to room together until they can come up with a plan, write it down, sign it and effectively execute it.
My son told me I was a bully. My daughter wailed. I stood firm.
I told them if that didn't work, I would begin taking away more privileges, such as iPod touches, phones, toys, etc. My son had the nerve to roll his eyes at me.
Game on.
I told him (calmly) the air he breathes is a privilege in this house. And that I could make life way more miserable for him than just rooming with his sister.
Then I took it down a notch and told them how much it hurts me when they hurt. And when they are so ugly to each other that I can see that they hurt. I told them it is no longer acceptable to behave this way. And that if they wanted special things, like fun shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch or Wii games or extra snacks and goodies, then they needed to figure out how to be pleasant around each other.
Presently, my middle daughter and my younger daughter's friend are in bed. My son and my younger daughter are upstairs scrambling to come up with a plan right now, in hopes they won't have to actually share a room for even one night.
As for me, I'm done with them acting like this. And I'm not putting up with it for one more second.
They have yet to even see "mean mommy" yet. Here's hoping they don't ever, ever have to.
I will keep you posted as the drama unfolds...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment