I just had to take a few minutes to record something so that when my children are older, I will have proof of what actually happened. So if you're in a hurry and don't want to take the time to read all this, please feel free. This is for "future me" - me in 10 years or so. =)
Yesterday had been a great day - just as I had posted yesterday. But I wrote that entry moments before all the craziness began. I posted my thoughts and was about to get in the shower when I heard Julia hollering and crying. Now, all the kids were in bed already. Aulora was asleep and John David and Julia were supposed to be going to sleep within only a few minutes. So when I heard Julia, I headed to their room to find out what was going on. She was scared because John David was looking down on her from his bunk and saying she looked yummy to eat (all this with his scary monster voice). So I comforted her and told John David not to do that anymore (and explained that if he did he would have a spanking). I left their room, glad once again to have the night to myself.
It was only a couple of minutes before I heard Julia hollering yet again. I went back to find that this time John David's foot had been trying to eat her. So John David had a meeting with me in my room. I returned him to his bed and gave a stern warning to both of them that it was time to go to sleep. NO MORE PLAYING!
Now, at this point, a person would like to think this story is over. I would like to think it's over! But no, it is not.
A few moments passed and I heard them both hollering and crying now. And because of their loudness, Aulora was now awake too. I walked in their room, and in a loud voice said, "That's enough! This is ridiculous! GO TO SLEEP! NOW!" John David started bawling and buried his head under his pillow. "Stop scaring me!" he was saying. I told him that I wan't being scary, I just wanted them to go to sleep. He continued to carry on and on saying that I was being loud and scaring them and that wasn't nice. He wouldn't look at me and insisted on keeping his head buried. Now, because he was crying, Julia felt obligated to do her part to and so began her pathetic little "hoo hoo hoo" crying from the bottom bunk.
There really are no words to paint a picture of the scene. I just stood there in disbelief as he went on and on. Nothing I could say would make him stop. He was quite convinced that I was mean and scary and needed to apologize to him! I have no problem apologizing to my kids if I've done something wrong, but as I explained to him, I had tried being nice, I had tried giving warnings, I had tried giving spankings, but none of it worked! So I had to be loud. Finally, I just left the room, thinking he would settle down quickly and go to sleep since it was now an hour past his betime, an hour past my time. But no, he got even louder. So after a few minutes I went back to their room and mustered all the sterness minus meaness that I could and demanded that he stop and go to sleep immediately. I'm proud to say that worked.
When I relayed the story to my mom afterwards on the phone, she told me they would probably never forget that and they would probably twist it into some huge thing saying stuff like I stormed in their room when they were almost asleep and started screaming at them. She says this because Jeremy and I have stories that we tell which she insists happened quite differently. Like my brother is convinced that he was beaten with a wire coat hanger in a hotel room once. My parents say that absolutely didn't happen and I certainly don't remember it happening. Or there was the time that we played football in the rented house we lived in and spilled rootbeer all over the white carpet. We just stood there looking at it as it soaked in. Our mom turned into quite the monster (or so our childhood memories would like us to think) as she yelled, "Bring me towels!!!" So there, my children, just try to turn me into a screaming beast. I will have the last word with my carefully typed blog entry from 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment