Sticking Together

My daughters are peas in a pod. They can argue with each other and they definitely have sibling rivalry going on, but ultimately they have each others back. They are united against a common enemy - their parents. This  was on display on Monday morning.

We had a fun day planned. My husband was in the kitchen making cheesy omelets and chocolate chip pancakes. We were going to spend a few hours at the water park and then go see family for lunch and then make homemade pizza for dinner and hang out and play games. It was a great morning - things were starting out well. Until my 8 year old threw a fit. She walks in the kitchen and asked me where the nail polish remover was. I told her I had used it all. She started acting completely irrational and yelling and crying. She obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I asked her multiple times to stop crying and whining and to leave the room (which she refused to do). So I picked her up and physically removed her from the kitchen. I don't put up with that kind of crap. Especially not first thing in the morning.

My 6 year old went to her and was patting her back and then she came into the kitchen and said, "Why are you being so mean today? You should not be mean to C." I just ignored her and fixed my coffee, like the meanest mom in the world would. She got mad that I was ignoring her and she nudged my leg to get my attention which caused coffee to spill all on the counter and down the cabinets. Steam started coming out of my ears. I turned around to her and said, "Learn to pick your fights. This is not your fight." She started to cry, "But you should not be mean to her."

We sat down to eat and my 8 year old had finally gotten over herself and sat down - sniffling with eyes red. Sad face. My 6 year old declared, "I wish we had better parents." WTF? I rolled my eyes. My oldest daughter turned to her and said, "There is no such thing."

Later I asked her what she meant by that. She said, "There are no better parents then you guys because no one is perfect." I thought that it was a very insightful observation. Granted, there are better parents than us out in the world. That have more patience. I don't feel the need to be validated by my children about my parenting but it is nice to hear sometimes that she doesn't wish she lived with some other nicer parents that would let her have a TV in her bedroom and eat icecream before dinner and take her on a shopping spree to Claire's every Saturday. Thankfully our oldest child gives us grace. I know I won't get any from my 6 year old. :)

Later that day as I was cleaning up the upstairs I found this letter. I could have melted: