My daughter, the tulip

[flutterbee]

Scene: difficult child's bedroom, 9:00 AM

(Mom knocks on door. After no response, Mom opens door and proceeds into bedroom.)

Mom: Time to wake up, Sunshine! Wakey, wakey!
difficult child: mumble mumble mumble I'm tiiiiiirrred. (flops over and pulls covers over head)

(Mom sits on the bed and rubs difficult child's back)

Mom: Come on, Sweetheart. It's time to get up. I'd like to get a shower before we leave, but I can't until I know you're up. If I don't get a shower, I'm not walking you in.

difficult child: (flops again) I'm tiiiirrreed. I don't feel good. I want to sleep.

Mom: You'll be fine. Time to get up.

(Mom starts walking her fingers down difficult child's leg. difficult child jerks her legs and grunts.)

Mom: Come on, Cocomo. Time to rise and shine!

(Mom walks her fingers up difficult child's back around her shoulders.)

difficult child: Stop that! It hurts!
Mom: How can that hurt?
difficult child: It just does!
Mom: Well, I didn't know you were so delicate. Like a flower. I think I'll call you Tulip.

(difficult child glares at Mom)

Mom: Well, it's better than Turtle. And tulips are pretty. (Said in an exaggerated voice) They brighten your day!

(difficult child tries not to laugh and rolls over. It makes her angry when Mom makes her laugh when she's trying to be annoyed.)

difficult child: I don't want to get up. I'm tiiiiirrrrred.

(Mom leaves room and completes a couple chores. After a few minutes, Mom returns to difficult child's room and announces....)

Mom: Come on, Tulip! It's time to get up.
difficult child: Stop calling me that! (trying not to laugh)
Mom: Well, stop being a delicate flower. Besides, would you rather I sing?

(difficult child gets up)

 

[totoro]

You are SO mean.... stomping out of the room slamming the door!!!

Too funny

 

[Christy]

Reminds me of my waitress days. When I had a particularly difficult customer, I would attempt to "kill 'em with kindness."

Good for you for modeling happiness-lol

 

[tiredmommy]

She's lucky you didn't water her!

 

[KTMom91]

I would like to hear you sing...can we duet? One of my favorite things is singing to Miss KT...because I'm "very annoying..."

 

[meowbunny]

Tiptooooooooe through the tulipppppppps (attempting Tiny Tim imitation).

Ah, mama's revenge. Amazing how the threat of our singing gets out kids to do so many things. Gather your voice is as remarkable as mine -- totally offkey even when trying. Good job!

 

[Star*]

Your daughter the tulip ~
My son the snap-dragon, or is it bull-thistle?

Loved the story!

 

[TerryJ2]

Ohhhhhhhhh, Meowbunny, you beat me to it!!!!!

 

[Wiped Out]

This is great-don't you just love when they are mad and they can't stay mad because you make them laugh?

When I was young whenever I would get mad at my dad, which wasn't often, he would sing one of two songs. "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime" or "You are My Sunshine". No way I could stay mad then!

 

[Sara PA]

Ah, the threat to sing. It works so well. I use to threaten to start singing and dancing in stores when my son started whining or getting feisty. That or shop for bras.

 

[Hound dog]

You know, I always loved an opportunity to be silly with my kids. (tended to annoy the heck out of them at the time)

I love it. And there will come a day when that will be a very fond memory for her.

 

[susiestar]

I have a couple of song parts I sing at the kids (I am WAY to lousy a singer to sing TO anyone!). If y'all have seen Earth Girls are Easy, there is a song called "Cause I'm a Blonde". Well, I sing it "Cause I'm the Mom" - difficult child used to get REALLY upset if I didn't time things carefully. Now all the kids just groan and hide a smile.

I also sing "I've got the power" just that line from some song I have forgotten. Why do I have the power? I sing hte first song. So what if I am the mom? I sing hte second. Drives 'em nuts while they smile.

My husband kept having to take time off to go up to the jr high a few years ago. He finally said (in the office in front of the office ladies) that if it kept up, difficult child was going to ahve a personal dedication sung by dad over the intercom - A BARNEY SONG!!

husband would NOT have embarrassed difficult child in front of the other kids, but it did curb some of the stupid stuff difficult child was doing. And the office ladies were MORE than happy to let husband sing if he wanted to - they would OFFER if husband came in! (Of course, husband can carry a tune, LOL!)

Now, just a few years past jr high (like not even 2), difficult child remembers the Barney song threat and laughs about it.

This will be something she remembers fondly, esp after she has her own kids.

 

[Lothlorien]

Cute story. Miss gets mad at me too, when I try to make her laugh and she's annoyed.

 

[flutterbee]

Well, she is a delicate flower.

Saturday night she came to me...her wrist hurts, hurting up to her elbow. This has been happening since she started knitting, but I'm just the Mom; what do I know?

So, I tell her to take some advil; that it would help with any inflammation. She can't take advil, she says, they make her gag. I've seen her take them before, but whatever. So, get an ice pack. ICE DOESN'T WORK! Nothing ever works for this child. She needed an ace bandage she said. And of course we can't find any. She uses them allllllll the time and she loses them.

So, at 2am I have easy child drive me to Kroger (I had already taken my lunesta) and send him in to get a wrist support. $20. He got size small-medium. She puts it on. It hurts her hand around her thumb. Well, you're not supposed to fasten it so tight that your eyes bulge out. It's not that tight, she swears. Next day she's crying cause she has red marks on her thumb from the support. I try the stupid thing on and my hands are bigger than hers and it felt fine. But, again, whatever.

Send easy child back to the store for an ace bandage. Except he accidentally got one for the ankle so it's too wide. No problem. We'll just fold it in half and wrap it. First she wants me to do it, but won't hold her arm out. I finally had to grab her arm, pull it out and tell her that I wasn't chasing her arm around. Got it on. Wasn't good enough. She redid it. Still wasn't good enough. She unfolded it and wrapped it again. You guessed it. That won't work either.

I give up. Her wrist is just going to have to hurt. I know if it was really hurting she would have taken the advil and tried the ice. But, like I said she's a delicate little flower.

And, to be honest, my singing isn't half bad. She just doesn't like the songs I pick and the volume at which I sing them.