Tantrum.
Today featured a screaming shrieking tantrum. Upon arriving back home from dropping kids at school Gleek became very angry with me because she’d carried her shoes to the car and failed to get them onto her feet. She expected me to sit in the driveway and help her put shoes on so she could walk into the house and take them back off. I refused and herded her into the house where she disolved into a screaming shrieking tantrum. After a few minutes of listening to her kicking and screaming and shouting “I hate you!” I picked her up and put her into her room. She knows when I do this she is supposed to stay there until she is calm. Instead she went running for the door and demanding her blanket. I put the child safety doorknob on so that she couldn’t get out of her room without permission and retrieved her blanket from where she’d thrown it in the living room. I gave it to her and she hit me with it. So I shut the door on her and tried to ignore the screaming and pounding.
Howard came up from his office wondering what all the noise was about. I’m fairly certain the neighbors were wondering too, but fortunately they didn’t come and ask. I’m so glad Howard was home because we were able to exercise some tag-team parenting. When one parent is in conflict with a child, then the other parent gets to step in and be understanding. Gleek resisted Howard in that role. She was demanding that she wanted mommy, but I was feeling abused and I felt that it was important that she appologize for her behavior before I became sympathetic. I’m not sure what magic Howard worked on Gleek, but within a minute all was quiet in her room. It stayed quiet for 5 or 10 minutes at the end of which a very appologetic and teary Gleek came running to me for hugs and reassurance.
I love that Howard now has the time and sufficiently low stress levels to do this kind of thing.