Climbing down from the Table

Each day I wake up, I have a choice. I can cry over spilled milk (or watered down Pepsi- love ya Andrea!) or I can respond with love and grace. While in my head the obvious choice is love and grace. I'm having a hard time putting that into action.

For example- the kids pulled the hose off the wind up reel thingy today while I was making sandwiches for lunch. Instead of having them help me fix it or calmly dealing with the situation- I grumbled, I grumped, I complained that I can't get one little thing down without the two of them making a mess (yup-those were pretty much my words!), and I wouldn't let them help when I was fixing it because I just didn't want to deal with more messes.

So you all want to sign up to have me watch your kids now, don't you??

The thing is- this isn't me. As a teacher- I pride myself on my classroom management. I always get compliments on my class behavior and difficult students often don't appear as difficult in my room. This isn't to imply my classroom of students are perfect- far from it. But it is a controlled and managed chaos. And, for that, I have always been proud of myself.

So, why is it, at home, I am not good with just two?

When I was teaching in MD we had this one teacher who had no classroom control. One time he stood on his desk and yelled "I'm the teahcer!" Well, let me just tell you- if you have to tell them you are the teacher- you not really in charge, they are. I know this because his classroom was right beside mine and we heard everything- to the point where during my observations, the principal would have to go into that classroom and settled them down because he could hear them in my room. Needless to say that teacher was helped to find another position in a less challenging area.

I feel like at home, I'm standing on my kitchen table yelling "I'm the mommy!"

It's a choice each day to wake up and make the most of the day or cry over the hitting, pinching, fighting and constant choas. It isn't the choice I struggle with- it is putting that choice into action.
As I have been teaching Ashlyn when she gets upset- I'm going to try to take a deep breath and calm down before getting angry- just as soon as I climb down off the kitchen table.