I really hate to say this but parenting Missy Moo has been a bit of a struggle lately…She has recently decided that the world DOES indeed revolve around her and we are all here simply to accomodate her specific, needed-it-yesterday needs RIGHT AWAY. Here is a typical dialogue with my elder child:
Me: Good morning, sunshine! Are you ready for a great day!?
Missy Moo: Hi, Mommy!!!!! (good so far, right? Just wait…)
Me: Let’s get up and get dressed so we can get downstairs and have our DinoEggs oatmeal!
Missy Moo: I don’t want to get dressed.
Me: I know sissy but we have to get dressed because you are going to school.
Missy Moo: I don’t want to get dressed.
Me: Same thing as I said in the last line.
Missy Moo: tantrum begins
Me: OK, sissy, I will go on downstairs and when you decide you want to stop crying and throwing your fit, I will help you get dressed.
Missy Moo: I want to get dressed (said in a tone that implies I am absolutely nuts for thinking she did not want to get dressed in the first place)
So we get dressed with just a few reminders that we do indeed need to complete getting dressed and there is about three minutes worth of peace until we walk down the hall to descend our stairs. Here is the next dialogue:
Me: Come on, sissy – let’s go downstairs and get our Dino Eggs!
Missy Moo: I want you to carry me. (This is simply because I am carrying Bubba Boo, who, may I remind you, cannot yet walk let alone walk downstairs).
Me: I know you do, but mommy is carrying Bubba so you will have to walk downstairs like a big girl.
Missy Moo: Tantrum
Me: I am sorry that you are sad but please come down and eat your Dino Eggs when you are ready.
Missy Moo continues to scream and cry at the top of her lungs just outside our bedroom door where Classic Old Spice is attempting to get a few more precious minutes of sleep before he has to go off and be SuperDentist. I am fully-aware of the fact that this is now a power struggle so I make downstairs so irresistable that she has to cave – Dino Eggs, Flinstone vitamin, OJ, and as a special treat, we get to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog during breakfast!!!! As expected, she is downstairs within seconds and when I tell her how good it is to see her, she looks at me like I am the crazy one…Oh and by the name of the title, I am in no way insinuating that I know what it is like to have Borderline Personality Disorder or live with someone who does, I am just simply imagining that this might offer a small glimmer into what this disorder might entail.
I will spare the details of our other conversations but suffice it to say, NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING is easy. You can ask her to do anything and she will respond with “I don’t want to.” This response has become so automatic to her that she now says it without thinking – such as “Let’s have a giant ice cream cone” and she will immediately say “I don’t want to.” In addition, I catch myself uttering the exact phrase that used to irritate me completely whenever my own mother used to say it – the dreaded “Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do,” phrase. Before I could even think about it, these words were falling out of my mouth faster than I could pull them back in.
Since it can be almost guaranteed that anything is going to be a struggle, I have decided to have a sense of humor (most of the time) and remind myself that I am pretty sure this is how I was at the age of 2 years, 9 months. I guess I also have to admit that this is how I want my little girl to be – strong-willed, able to think for herself, independent, and free to speak her mind. Certainly a perfect example of the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for…” Would I take her any other way? Of course not – I wished for her to be exactly how she is and by golly, I got it.
