Tired, emotional...

...and dealing with other people’s brats children

This morning I hated the world. I was tired and grumpy, the girls were tired and grumpy and I think everyone (and I mean everyone, not just my family but all the people I’ve spoken with or seen out and about) is suffering from the wear and tear of another year coming to its end. I can cope with that, though. However, when people start messing with my kids (even if it is another child doing the messing) I get an incredible urge to decapitate said people with my teeth.

I dropped off both the girls at school and kindergarten this morning. The little one went first and because I was dropping her off before 8.30am, she went into the ‘family room’ (where early drop offs and late pickups go), this room is always quite busy and holds different age groups. It was all going well, though, she was happy to go off, I was chatting with her teacher then I caught, out of the corner of my eye, her trying to get involved in one of the activities that was set up in the room. There were some preserved insects in clear plastic/resin and the little one was trying to look at a preserved butterfly when another little girl snatched it out of her hand and got right in her face yelling ‘pack up! Pack up!’ At this stage, the little one probably proved that she can be much more emotionally mature than her mother because she just looked at the yelling creature, shrugged and wandered off to find something else to do. I couldn’t let it go, though, and made a comment along the lines of ‘wow, that was rude’ obviously prompting a query from the teacher I was talking with. When I explained what had happened, the thing got told to share and I went off to sign in that I was dropping off the little one. I know it’s just a child and all but that kind of behaviour irks me at the best of times and when there’s yelling and snatching directed at my daughter, it really gets my back up.

So I was already extra peevish when we got to the big one’s school. She and I found out that we had forgotten about a present that’s being arranged for the big one’s teacher and my daughter was very upset. I was chatting with the mother organising the gift when the big one came over and buried her face in my side, crying. A couple of mums tried to comfort her thinking she was just upset about having forgotten but when I had the chance to take her aside and find out what she was really upset about, I found out that a boy in her class had been nasty to her about having forgotten. I explained to the big one that it was nobody’s business but ours and we would make sure to fix it up over the weekend. I am good at hiding how I’m feeling on the surface but, again, inside I was seething.

The three of us have a tendency to overreact when we’re tired. The little one becomes very introverted and can regress to wanting to sit on my lap, suck her thumb and close her eyes (I assume she goes to a private happy place in her head where there’s less noise and people). The big one has a tendency to burst into tears at the drop of a hat and take everything painfully personally. I become highly aggravated and end up hating the world and everyone in it. Fortunately none of our moods last very long and we can all be cured with a bit of extra sleep or some quiet-time on the couch with a favourite movie or book.