Mom's Tirade

After homework and chores were done, I told Jake and Cooper they could play with some neighbor boys until 6:30 this evening. Jared was working at the Urgent Care until late and then was going to work-out after, so we weren't on a real time crunch. Except that the boys didn't get home 'til 6:45. This wasn't a total problem, but it did mean that they couldn't mess around and play anymore. After dinner we had to get down to business getting cleaned up and ready for bed. Unfortunately I let Cooper go outside before I checked his room. He had left a big mess of trains and tracks in there.

When Cooper came home and checked out the pans on the stove trying to figure out what dinner was, he let out a few moans of disgust and went to his room. When he came back, I told him that he needed to start cleaning up the mess if he wasn't going to eat. This sent him into a spiraling clump on the floor of whiny crying. He wanted to play with the trains some more. I told him there wasn't any more time and reminded him of the rule that we clean up our messes before bed. He finally stomped in there after I started counting which meant he'd lose the trains to an indefinite time-out if he didn't get going.

When Jake finished eating his dinner I asked him to go help clean up the mess that he didn't make. Amazingly, he went and did what I told him to without complaining to me or Cooper.

When Jake came back out, chore done and pajamas on, he asked if he could have some ice cream. To his surprise, I said yes. But he earned it. I appreciated his willingness to help me out when he could have been doing something else. Cooper came out shortly in his pajamas and asked if he could have a little bit of dinner. He got his little bit. Then I fluttered around the kitchen tidying up and tending to Karcyn and Calvin.

A few minutes later I saw Cooper finish his meal of 5 bites as he looked longingly at Jake's ice cream. I knew what was coming. Without fail, Cooper ALWAYS asks for treats or privileges that he KNOWS he's either lost of hasn't earned. And it's not like we throw out random rules with random consequences. He KNOWS! But the little stinker asks anyway and then when we say no, he throws himself in another round of sobs as if we had just committed the worst treachery known between parent and child. We even have him tell us why he can't have a treat, for example, and he tells us, perfectly. So really...I'm not sure where the synapses aren't connecting in these lessons of actions and consequences. Or if he just thinks one of these days we'll cave.

So when Cooper put his fork in his bowl, I saw it in his eyes and I started preparing myself for Cooper fit #4 when I told him no, yet again. He looked up at me with a sigh and said, softly, but confidently, carefully choosing his words, "Moooom, can I have..." but I cut him off.

"Cooper! Since the moment you got home from playing you have been throwing one fit after another. You turned your nose up at dinner, you stomped off and then threw another inappropriate fit when I asked you to clean up a mess that you made all by yourself, which, by the way, your brother ended up cleaning for you. Do you really think you earned ice cream? No. You didn't."

I didn't even wait for the response. I scurried off to finish my task of tidying up and then I heard it. The dramatic Cooperesque weeping.

"Cooper, we go through this every time. You know you can't have a treat when you hardly ate any dinner and especially after the way you behaved." He just kept crying, slumped over his bowl. As I stood at Calvin's high chair, Cooper tried to mumble through his sobbing. "Cooper, I can't understand you when you cry." So he choked back the tears, took a deep breath, looked at me with big puppy dog eyes, glossy with tears and pathetically mumbled, "But you wouldn't let me talk."

Huh?

So I stood there, my body turned straight at him and said, "Okay...talk."

He said, "I...just (*sniff*) wanted...a drink." And he continued to cry at the injustice.

Oh....my....gosh. I laughed so hard. Yes, laughed! I could not keep it in. I tried apologizing with a straight face, but it couldn't be done...the straight face, I mean. I did say I was sorry. But I could not stop laughing. Fortunately, it only took a few moments for Cooper's sob to turn into a laugh, too. Man oh man.

*sigh* And I thought I knew my kids so well. I definitely messed up. I have to say, however, that's the funniest mistake I've made in a long time.

Oh NO!! I just realized--that I never gave Cooper a drink! I was too busy laughing. Great. The kid's gonna be scarred for life.