The Day it Was All Back to Normal
Added at 12:41pm and filed under Not impressed, Oh Mama, Silent Hill, family
Okay. All is calm now.
Last week . . . oh, it was just horrible. You wouldn’t think that just telling your child off would make you feel so crappy but seriously – it was hideous. Everything he did – lose his school bag for the sixth time in a month, almost broke the DVD player, spill stuff, drop stuff, break stuff, not do stuff – would be FINE in isolation, but when he did them one after the other after the other it just became too much. Plus . . . I love my boy. We’re friends. Yelling at him breaks my heart, so to have had my voice permanently set on SCARYANGRYMOTHER hurts me more than it does him. By the end of that second day I just felt awful, nothing but a failure of epic proportions.
I so rarely have to discipline S. I know that makes me sound both smug and irritating in equal measure but . . . seriously. He’s such a GOOD boy. He’s well-mannered and kind and sweet and thoughtful and so, so funny – it’s a pleasure to be with him. We hardly ever have to intervene, and usually just the threat of the Naughty Hall (our equivalent of the Naughty Step) is enough to nip bad behaviour before it even starts. We’re firm and consistent in our approach to parenting – with thankfully both M and I being on the same page when it comes to how we deal with stuff – but that’s it, really. There’s no special formula. And I honestly don’t know which came first; I don’t know if the reason S’s so good is because we have such a good relationship, or if our relationship is good because he’s such a good boy.
Vehement advocates of the Naughty Step theory we don’t smack in this house, and I’ve always prided myself on how adult I am with S. When he’s bad and sent for his five minutes time out, he always knows why and I always manage to convey it without yelling. Don’t get me wrong – he has his moments. We ALL have our moments. But he’s mostly a good lad with lovely intentions, so I think that’s why last week was so horrible. It was like the Twilight Zone. An alternate universe where my tolerance was replaced with a frayed rope and S replaced with his Evil Twin.
But like I say, all is well now. All is calm. I woke up on Sunday determined not to have another shitty today, so together we wrote a list of the things we’d like to do – painting his TARDIS figure, watching Madagascar 2, go to Borders (him), read a book, do some maths, tidy his room (me) – and that totally worked. S loved writing the list and crossing stuff off as and when we worked through, and I . . . well, I just loved S. His fat, crazy little handwriting is just the best.
Aw. As I type this, S’s come over to me on the sofa and put his arms around me for a bear hug. We have the BEST hugs, S and I. They sometimes make me cry they’re so full of awesome.
Anyway.
Tomorrow I go back to work. I know – I can’t believe it either. How fast have those two months gone? Emotionally and psychologically I’m more than ready, but I’m still not 100% convinced my body is. I’m still pretty swollen around the epic-fail laparoscopy wound, and if I walk about too much the scar from the open surgery hurts like a motherfucker. Friday I drove to my old place of work to catch up with friends and get my hair done and the overwhelming excitement of being with PEOPLE and eating in a RESTAURANT put me to sleep by 9.30pm. Hardcore. But that said, I have to go back some time, and staying home is not doing me much good. I can’t take any more daytime TV.
Plus it’ll keep me off eBay. Jesus. I’ve cleared out my PayPal account adding to my Silent Hill collection, and while I’m allowed spend that money unashamedly on myself (it’s MY money generated from MY second job, so therefore I feel guilt-free about splurging) I have spent more than a sane person would. Heh.
I also hope that going back to work will put me back on track with my Project 365 again. I feel bad that I’ve missed so much, but there were only so many arty photos inside of my own crappy house I could take, so here’s hoping that being OUTSIDE will inspire me to pick up my camera again. :)
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On 10 May, 2009 at 8:36 pm, Whitney said:
Yay for going back to work and not spending all you money!!! =D Glad you and S. are back to being friends!
On 10 May, 2009 at 9:44 pm, Audrey said:
Hope all goes well when you return to work! It sounds like Sam is a very normal and fortunate little boy.
On 12 May, 2009 at 3:46 pm, J said:
Aww glad you and S are back to normal :) I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with my free time once I finish law school today. I only have 10 days so it’s not as long as yours but I could easily spend time buying stuff! Good for you for spending money on yourself, though :)
On 13 May, 2009 at 3:14 pm, Jem said:
I’ve just discovered something: pregnancy makes you blub like a total fool over the stupidest things (like soppy weblog posts). Even when you’re at work. And should not be reading said posts. :|
I hope you’ve been taking it easy this week – don’t bugger yourself up by working too hard all in one go. Let us know how it’s been, too. :)
On 16 May, 2009 at 10:40 am, sharon said:
Glad things are getting better. How did your first week back at work go?
On 16 May, 2009 at 3:58 pm, Teesee said:
Welcome back to the world of normal. Daytime TV looks appealing at first glance, but after the first week it gets very old ver fast. I found this out when I was unemployed for about 2 months last year (first unemployed stretch ever!)
I’ve been meaning to ask, that thing you bought off ebay (I think it was ebay) did the person screw you over or did they deliver the goods?