Bad Parenting 102

Today, I woke up with a migraine at 5am.

Bob woke up at 6am and James kindly looked after Bob, despite his own late night.

At 9am, I returned to the world to meet The Contrarian.

"I want to wear this." We put it on him. "Now I want to wear this."

"I want to a yogurt drink." I gave him a yogurt drink, of which he consumed 1 sip and walked away. I bumped in to the stool on which the yogurt drink had been placed and the yogurt spilled all over the floor. He decided he wanted the last sip that was left in the container and spilled it on his shirt and the floor.

I caught him moving the step stool to get things that are out of reach. He knows that he is not supposed to do that.

My work phone/email kept buzzing every 15-30 minutes, requiring me to return a call or email. That only egged him on to bother me incessantly, making the completion of the two minute task take 10 minutes or more.

I could go on and on with examples. I was counting the minutes until school at 12:30 so that his teachers would have to deal with The Contrarian.

At 11:53, all afternoon classes were canceled because of snow. Damn Snow.

I kept it together. No crisis ensued. But I don't think I have ever wanted him to go to school more than I did today.

So we went outside and he killed the snow man we had made earlier. A fitting image for the day.

After the beheading, he ate one of the eyes (a red grape). But the other eye and the nose (a carrot) have been left for the wildlife if they can find them under the snow.

At dinner, he would not eat the half of a veggie burger he had requested. He sat there with it for almost an hour before he finished it. Thank you, James. You have far more patience than I do.

I love him immensely, but school better be in session tomorrow!

Interestingly, I see that my 1 year ago blip is also about bad parenting - although not my own.