20 April 2012

I Give Up

Do you ever get to Friday thinking, "If it were any day but Friday, I would go stark raving mad"? Like you can't believe how long the week has been, and if it were even one day longer, you might strangle someone. Sammy and I have been grumpy with each other all week- I've been dealing with Benjy's stuffy nose, he's been testing every single boundary he can. Today I decided to make peace and do something nice for him. He begs to go to the McDonalds playplace every time we drive by, so I took him there for lunch.
Things started off well. I told Sam that he had to eat lunch before he went to play, and he happily consented to eat some french fries, all of his apple slices, and 4 bites of chicken nugget. Then I took off his shoes and let him loose.
Sam loves playing with other kids, but not when there are a lot of them and they are noisy. The playplace, unfortunately, was pretty full. He was too scared to climb very far up any of the equipment, but seemed to have a ball jumping off the little steps he was willing to climb. After about 20 minutes of that, he flopped down on the floor. As he was blocking the other kids, and he hadn't been playing, anyway, I picked him up and said in my most cheerful mom voice, "Time to go, bud!"
Toddler meltdown! He kicked, screamed, and beat on the table as I put his shoes back on. It was embarrassing, and frustrating that after trying to be extra nice to him, I was now going to have to discipline him. The price to pay for throwing a fit is to spend the afternoon in his room, so that's where he is. And I am ready to be done with this week.

1 comment:

Waltonians said...

I have had this problem before. My new method is to only go to the playplace on stormy days or as a super special reward (last year we went only twice), and the eating comes afterward...first he plays...I give him several warnings before time to goe(10 minutes,5 minutes...3 minutes...1 minute)...then food or a 50 cent cone to go...that way he's in the car and happy and we're out. Sorry chica...I can commiserate. :) Hope your weekend is better from here on out.