Can't We Just Get Along?

My daughters are about three-and-a-half years apart in age. I really thought it would be a good age gap. My older sister is only 10 months older than me and we were never especially close growing up. I figured my little one would have a good role model and my older one would love teaching her little sister how to do stuff. Boy, was I ever wrong! I guess it's because they're on vacation from school and are feeling a little trapped in the house by the cold weather. One minute, they're nice. The next, it's like the WWF in here! It's crazy. The older one bullies the younger one, threatens her, says "I'm going to call your teacher." The little one retaliates and bullies back, egging on her older sister under she gets a smack or a kick or a scratch. Then, she comes crying about how her sister hit her. I consider myself pretty level-headed. My thought is - if you don't want her to hit you, stay away from her and don't goad her. But, she's four so she doesn't really get that rationale. You'd think they'd be happy to go outside today and make a snowman and snow angels and throw snowballs and go sledding. Nope. Fights about who the sled belongs to. They've been loving the dollhouse they got for Christmas. But, they fight about which doll gets to go inside and who gets to be the mom or the sister. I don't want to complain about my kids. I don't want to be the mom that prays for vacation to end and school to start back up. But, I am that mom. I just want peace. I know kids argue, but does it have to last all day? Do they have to call each other names and hit each other? Can't they be like passive-aggressive adults and bottle up their emotions and then take them out on someone else later in life? That's what I did! There are only three days left until school starts again. Then the fighting will only take place 5 hours a day instead of 12! Give me strength.

Taking it too far

Why is it that kids can't stop themselves? When do they learn self-control? I try not to nag my kids (their father does that enough) but give them a warning that something might be dangerous or painful or lead to unpleasant consequences. Today, my daughter was wearing crocs and decided to slide on the ice in the middle of the street with her friend. I told her to be careful, that her shoes would make her slip and that she'd probably fall. Of course, what happened? Yup - splat right on her face. She waited till she got in the car to cry, and did so all the way home and then while laying on the couch. I know my kids don't like to listen. Why is it, though, that a tickle has to turn into a wrestling match that ends with punches to the gut and kicks to the ribs? Or standing next to someone leads to a game of tag that leads to shrieking in public places and bumping into unsuspecting passersby? They take everything too far. I don't think I'm that strict. I don't think I limit my kids too much. I may be wrong. I've been told by some that I'm too hard on them and by others that I'm not hard enough. I don't want to stymie their free spirits, but come on. I let them "swim" in the bathtub tonight. They had bathing suits on, a ton of toys, foam spray for the walls, and on and on. That wasn't good enough, apparently, because the game became splashing and soaking the shower curtain, walls, ceiling, floor, toilet, towels, toilet paper and anything else they could reach. Too far. So when will my kids get that internal stop sign? Or at least a yellow light so they'll slow down.

Presents

This morning, I was so pleased with my daughters. They woke up and opened their stockings and then did something quite unexpected. I thought they would run to the tree and find something with their own name on it. Instead, they found gifts for everyone else and wanted them to open their presents. They had so much joy in giving that it warmed my heart. Of course, things changed a bit later on when they began opening gifts. You'd think they were twins - most of what they got was the same. It was like you had to buy the identical gift so there wouldn't be any "sharing" issues. When I was wrapping, it seemed like so little. Once it was opened, it seemed like so much! Is it too much? When is it enough? It was sweet to watch their faces light up when they saw what lay under the paper. For the older one, she jumped for joy at a snuggie, of all things. The little one liked her princess and the frog doll. They each got a dollhouse, that my brave sister bought and offered to assemble. I'm sure she's regretting that purchase right about now. I loved that they wanted to play with everything right now. Everything needed to be opened (thankfully Grandpa travels with his trusty pocketknife) and assembled and tried out. Did I mention I ran out of AA batteries very quickly? And the tasty tester concoction of raspberry soda probably sounded better than it tasted. All in all, it was a nice, peaceful Christmas. The best part was sharing it with my parents, my sister and my daughters as we rejoiced in the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Merry Christmas!