405 Temper Tantrums (To Go)

Not only my life has been turned upside down by near death... My kids have been thrown for a loop. Mommy, who has ALWAYS been there and ALWAYS had the strength to pick them up and make it all better, is suddenly a big bag of poo.

My wonderful in-laws and my own amazing Mom have stepped in to help out. It has been wonderful to watch the kids be able to spend extended amounts of time with the grandparents even though the reason for it is horrid. BUT! I have also watched my children turn into ungrateful little asses more than once with those same grandparents. And even worse they have decided to turn into raving lunatics in general.

Katie and Connor have been at each other's throats! Egging each other on and instigating fights. The screams have not only been aggravating to my head, but they have also been rather embarrassing to me! They are not docile angels by far, but they are not usually this bad! I don't want the grandparents to think they act this way because I let them get away with it normally. They are a bit spoiled, but not to this extent! They have their boundaries, but all of those have been breached in the past two weeks.

Saturday was by far the worst day. Connor was in rare form, snatching things from Katie and hitting her when she tried to get them back. Katie was taunting him until he continued to smack her. What do you do when one encourages the other to hit her .... until it actually hurts, and then she thinks he should get in trouble?! I have reached the point where I try to let them figure it out themselves except for the most painful of hits. I feel she is old enough to have learned about "cause and effect". The effect will always be Connor getting angry and smacking her. There are only so many times I can tell her to do (or not do) something because it will lead to Connor becoming angry. Or even something so simple as telling her not to sit on the floor because eventually he will try to tackle her. There are so many things that she taught him to do as a game when he was younger that now hurt her. I am tired of explaining that I told her this would happen.

I am tired of yelling to be heard.

Near death has taught me many things, one of the biggest is that the Adult/Child interaction in my house has to change. Chip and I will be reclaiming this house .... FOR GOOD! The actual house and the attitude within.