Ever wish you could pass on being a mommy for a day (or two)?

Ever wish that? If you are a mom (ok parent), especially a home school mom, you've definitely had those days. Today was one of them. It started even before we sat down to do school work.

I have evidently been "hit" with some kind of stomach discomfort the past few days. I was still feeling yucky this morning, but am plagued by an addiction to working out, so thought I'd get exercise somehow. Phil had said he probably couldn't take Katy for chapel as it would be a crazy day (and judging by how stressed he was this morning - when the hand lotion sprayed all over his clothes as he was about to leave the door), I decided she could just stay with me. No problem. We do it a lot. After some breakfast, I decided if I went to the gym I'd probably push too hard, so I asked Katy how she'd like to ride her bike in the neighborhood while I walked. She agreed (although it seemed like forever before she was actually dressed and ready).

We finally left for our walk...I thought everything was ok. She was riding along having fun. Then, she took off for our driveway. I wasn't going that way, so I hollered for her to follow me. After that it just went downhill from there. She got mad at me, tried to run me over with her bike, and finally sulked her way back to our house with me. The rest of our morning got worse. By the time we got up the driveway, she told me "I'm going to run away." That's always one of those "day brighteners", right? HA

I tried talking with her, it really only seemed to make things worse. We attempted to do school, but she kept expressing her anger at me. We talked about holding grudges against people and how God doesn't want us to have attitudes like what she had. She found every way to get more and more upset.

One of her things she's said for about a week is that she is mad that I am tearing the pages out of her home school workbooks to give to her instead of letting her have the book. She didn't want the books to become like a folder (once the pages were all out), Miss Brown's class had all their books in their desks (teacher at the school she attends for music, art, and pe), and that's how it was last year. I did it in the books last year and hated how destroyed the books became part way thru the year. I figured this would just be better. I'd pull out the pages and put them in folders labeled by the day when I did lesson plans each week.

Eventually she did help shed some light on things. She didn't understand the the workbook pages are perforated so that they can be torn out. She has been taught never to rip books and to respect them. She felt that I was disrespecting the books becasue I kept ripping out the pages. I think it helped when I suggested maybe she could help me rip the pages when I do lesson plans (which means really planning ahead as I usually do it late Sunday night).

As nap time, she asked me why I wasn't going to lay down like I had said I was going to do. She asked if it was becasue of her. I told her yes. You've told me all day you want to run away. IF I go lay down, who's to say you won't leave while I'm asleep. I also told her I wanted a shower, but didn't dare take it. She walked back down the hall and cried and then got in her bed. I didn't hear from her again (I know she was awake, but she stayed in bed and was quiet) till I told her to get up so we could leave for the school run.

Phil talked with her for awhile tonight explaining that it would be much better if she could use words like "Mommy, I feel like I want to run away because..." instead of I'm going to run away. He also asked if she would treat her Sunday School teacher the way she treats me. She was shocked and said NO. So Phil asked why she treated me disrespectfully. "Because she's my mommy, not my teacher." He corrected her and said that I may be her mommy, but I am her teacher too and she should treat me as respectfully as she does her other teachers. Hope that sinks in!

Needless to say getting to leave to go do a Pampered Chef party was very rewarding. It was so nice to get away from it all. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.