Thursday, February 18, 2010

A war is a being waged...


Where does my daughter get her bad attitude? She is only three years old...what has happened in her short life to make her as cranky as Archie Bunker? Seriously? Today, I got home from work to find Sophie in a foul mood. Immediately after I walked in the door, I had to tell the kids to get their boots and coats on so we could go pick up Lucas from school. Nicholas, being the eternally cheerful child that he is, complied right away, chatting away and smiling a goofy grin the entire time. Sophie, being the eternally willful child SHE is, immediately began complaining. Five more minutes? I don't want to. I can't walk. She dropped to the floor complaining that she was tired. "Sophie, get your boots on." Nothing. So I raised my voice a tad. "Now. Get your boots on. We have to go get your brother" Again, nothing. This time I lowered my voice, producing the most menacing tone I could muster. "Sophie Elizabeth," I growled, "get your boots on right now." Still nothing. Ok...time to pull out the big guns. "If you don't get your boots on right now, girl, you are not going to get a happy meal (we typically get happy meals on Thursdays because the kids have their ECFE class)." This time I got a dirty look....a glare of pure evil. But no movement from the floor at all. "Ok...Nicholas and Lucas are getting happy meals, but Sophie is not," I announced to no one in particular. Sophie, with steady confidence in her voice, responded simply,"Yes I am." At this point, I had had enough. Why am I arguing with a 3 year old? I am bigger than her. Much bigger than her. I jerked her up from the floor, forced her shoes onto her feet while she was laying sprawled out over the ottoman complaining that she was "exhausted." I had to put her coat on while holding her in the air...not an easy task. I carried her limp body to the van and fought to get her hands out of her coat pockets to strap her in. I finally fell into the front driver's seat, exhausted from my run-in with the beast.

Sophie was not done, however. As soon as I started the car, she screamed, "I don't want to listen to the radio!" Too bad. I turned the radio on. "I hate music!" Again, too bad. "Cover your ears," I told her. She put her hands over her ears as I watched her in the rearview mirror. She kept her hands over her ears the entire ride to Lucas' school, occasionally yelling out "I can still hear it!" Perhaps I am a vindictive woman, but every time she yelled that she could still hear the radio, I turned it up a notch. When we parked in front of Lucas' school, Sophie informed me that she couldn't walk because she was tired and that I would have to carry her. Nope. Not gonna happen. I told her that she would have to walk or she would wait in the car all alone while Nicholas and I went in and got Lucas. Luckily, she didn't call my bluff on that one. Instead, she screamed at the top of her lungs that her legs were "tired." Now normally, if she were being pleasant, I wouldn't have minded carrying her at all. However, in that moment, we were at war. Opposing camps. There would be no compromises. She was the enemy and I'll be damned if I was going to carry her! She did eventually walk into school of her own accord. I had won the battle, but I knew from her demeanor that the war was far from over. We may be fighting this war for years to come. Our own Hundred Years War. Mothers and daughters....the eternal struggle.

Did I get her a happy meal? Yes, of course. By the time we got to McDonalds, she had fallen asleep in the car. I guess she really was tired. She may have days where I swear that she is channeling Satan himself...but when she is asleep, Sophie is the most beautiful, precious creature I have ever seen. One look at Sleeping Beauty in the back seat and I melted. She is capable of pushing my buttons in a way the boys can't. I realize that we butt heads more than we should. Maybe it's because she's a girl? Maybe it's because we're a little too much alike? Maybe I see too much of myself in her, so I expect more from her? I don't know. But she got her happy meal. Perhaps I did not win the battle after all.

1 comments:

Jen said...

LOL! Oh My.......... she reminds me of my sister little girls... Drama, lol. Sometimes we forget that they are just lil people who have bad days too. Poor thing was just tired and maybe having a case of the winter blues :) Shes such a cutie.

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