YELLING UPDATE

We all know I hate yelling (see Shhh....blog on 10/30). Well I said I would tell you how it was working................ After the come to Jesus meeting, kids and Dad agreed to pipe it down. We all agreed there was way too much "loudness" in our home. Things have been going very smoothly. The kids are yelling at one another less and the parents are yelling at one another and their children less. I even learned that if I REALLY want to make a statement, in anger I will talk to the children in a nearly audible whisper. They see my pained face and my soft talking and they know that Mommy is about to lose it. All was well until yesterday.............

The stars have not been aligned in my favor the past 24 hours. After homework, the kids were wound TIGHT, like a rubberband. Maybe it's because they are just getting back in to their school routine. Maybe it's because they were tired. My children (I think) are very well behaved kids. They really don't give me a lot of grief. But yesterday, I was really considering selling them to the Circus.....hell, just giving them to the Circus.

At 4:00 you know where I will be most days...... in front of the T.V. watching Oprah. I give myself an hour a day of total relaxation and pretty much do not move my butt from the couch unless one of the children are on fire. They know this. They know this is Mommy time.
I turned Oprah on late because Christian couldn't figure out his Algebra (yes, Algebra in second grade). When I finally did turn on the tube, ten minutes in to my show Tori and Leroy were SCREAMING at each other in the basement....breaking the no yelling rule. I brought them upstairs and had them face each other silently in my presence until commercial time. Meanwhile, Christian started pushing Izzy on a toy car throughout our wooden floors making a huge racket. I turned up the volume. The phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. It was Me-Ma. "Why is Me-Ma calling me during Oprah?" I said aloud. Just then Christian and Izzy crash and then conk their heads (hard) together. Izzy started crying.

Now it's commercial.......

I quietly talk with Tori and Leroy. I warn them that Mommy will not be this gentle if I hear them yelling at one another again. I send them back to play nicely.

Oprah's on...................

I just had settled back down on to the couch when Christian and Izzy crashed and bonked heads AGAIN! This time, Izzy is SCREAMING at the top of his lungs. I yelled above Izzy's screaming (yes, I broke the rule) at Christian and said, "Could you stop pushing him on the car? You guys keep crashing and hitting your heads! No more car!"

Commercial.............

Sobs from Izzy.

Oprah's on......................

I hear commotion in the basement and Tori and Leroy are at it again. Just then, I see Christian coming up the stairs bawling his eyes out with lips quivering.

"What's wrong Christian?"

sobbing...sobbing

"What's wrong?"

"Mom, you scared me. I was scared. You yelled at me."

That broke my heart right then and there. I scared my little eight year old boy.......my picture of sweetness and all that is good.

Commercial......................

I hugged Christian and told him how sorry I was. I turned off the T.V. I wasn't meant to watch Oprah yesterday. My kids needed me more.

Around 5:30, everyone started acting up again. Christian was whining about being too hungry to wait for dinner (I was cooking it at the time). Izzy was screaming to be held. Leroy was going on and on and on and on about something I have no idea what he was talking about. Tori was crying because she had to take a shower. I was supposed to go to a Spa party in less than an hour and I still hadn't taken MY shower or finished dinner and Bubby wasn't home yet.

At 6:15 in walks Bubby from work wanting to discuss a family matter that apparently couldn't wait.

Tallulah lost it....tears and all. I obviously wasn't going to the Spa party. I wasn't going to have a moment of peace to myself. It was all about them. I'm hungry. I want to talk. I want to be held. I don't want to do that.

I can't be all things to all people and that's just what they ALL wanted. So during Mommy's break down, she yelled (broke the rule for the second time that day)at her husband. She told her husband to get out of the house. She told her children if they continued to make every little thing in their lives MY problem that they were going to bed.

The kids walked on eggshells the rest of the night. Bubby slid off the road of ice......twice. Bubby went to a movie and went in to the wrong theatre. By the time he realized he was in the wrong theatre, his movie had already started...so he came home.

See what happens? You start yelling and it's all down hill from there!