When the going gets tough, the tough get tickled!

As new mom's, I think somewhere in all of our minds, we have this vision of our relationship with our children. Soft light, floaty clothes, big smiles and laughs. We romp and play with our children and hug and snuggle and have kisses and life is perfect. Then, we have days like today, when my son and I seemed destined to get on each others nerves!

We had a visit to Dad's house this week, which went well. My son was gone an extra day, but it seemed to work better, almost, so we'll see how things continue to go. Anyway, we started the morning off on a very bad note. My son broke the Nintendo Wii. I know he didn't do it on purpose, and I should have paid more attention to him when he kept saying, "Mommy, DVD! DVD!" Because he knows how to use the DVD player I just assumed, VERY WRONGLY, that he wanted a movie in. So I said, go ahead and put it in if that's what you want to do. I realized just seconds too late that his "DVD" was actually a Wii game disc, and that there was already one in there. The slight grinding noise that the console made didn't improve matters. So now, when I get around to it, I have $100.00 worth of repair to do. Whoo whoo!

I did my best to just let it go, because he is only 3 and didn't break it with any malicious intent. So I thought a change of venue would be good. Time to go upstairs! Unfortunately, upstairs wasn't much better. "Mommy, juice! Juice, please! Juice me please!" All of it said in this pitiful, whiny voice. Ok, juice, no problem. So I got out the juice we just picked up at the grocery store and asked him to pick. So he did. I poured him his cup of juice, he took one drink, and didn't want it anymore. He wanted the other one. He whined and cried and screamed, and even got one spank for not listening and all to no avail.

It was like this all day! Whatever he got, he wanted to opposite, even if he asked for it in the first place. Some days, mother and child just will not get along. I think I knew that somewhere in the back of my head, but it was never really driven home until today! So what do we do? How, as single parents, do we handle those days when our nerves seem exceptionally shorter than normal? Even recognizing that I was on a very short rope today, I took more time outs for myself that usual, but I just couldn't seem to get my attitude turned around. I have realized though one thing that does work really well for me just about all the time. When the going gets tough, the tough get tickled! I grab my son and hold him in my arms and make funny noises and faces and tickle him. Most of the time, this leaves the two of us so distracted from what was making us grumpy that it just passes right by.

How do you deal with days like these? I would love to hear from you!
Take care,
Laura