Picture this - a snowstorm, not a huge one, just one with enough snow to bring the freeways to a dead stop. It took me 45 minutes to drive 8 miles to pick up Monster at his daycare. Pick him up, and our new deal is, you do your homework in the car, and you have more time to play, watch TV, whatever, when you get home. He isn't doing anything anyhow, so why not do his homework?
I tell him last night, we're in for a long ride home. You may as well do homework because you won't have a heckuva lot of time to do anything after we eat dinner whenever we get home.
For awhile, the homework in the car thing has worked. He does it, no complaints. At stop lights I help him with instructions he doesn't understand. There hasn't been the whining, the "I CAN'T DO THIS!", the general griping and complaining. Last night though, he starts in right away. "I can't do this. It's too hard." Whine. Whine some more. Whimper and complain. And I'm fighting snow and stupid drivers and I finally yell at him, "SHUT UP! GET YOUR HOMEWORK DONE NOW OR NO TREAT AFTER DINNER!!!" And he tries to make a deal with me - "How about no video games after dinner?" "NO - You haven't played video games in ages. How is that punishment?" then he starts in with the whining again and I start yelling, "I'm SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR BITCHING AND WHINING EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!!!! You're going to have homework for the next 11 YEARS AT LEAST SO DEAL WITH IT!" Then he starts crying. And for the first time in ages I don't feel guilty for making him cry. I let him cry. I calm myself down and say, listen. just do your homework. Now. And if I hear one more whine out of you NO treat tonight. Then he apologizes for whining and I apologize for yelling. And he does his homework and I wonder why it has to be this way every day when his homework when the problems are 4+1 and 5-0? He knows way more than this stuff. But he whines. Oh, how he whines.
So I lost my mind with him last night. Poor kid. I try to be patience but my supply sometimes runs out. Especially when I've been in the car for an hour and a half, and half of that time I've been listening to my son whine. Sigh.
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I feel your pain. I pretty much went through this last night with a certain Mini Me who lives in my house. It was over alphabetizing eight stinkin' Spanish words. She knows how. Does it every week. But last night? She got stuck on hicimos, hierba, and hierro. Whine whine whine. Complain complain complain. Guilt guilt guilt. Pity pity pity. Much bickering and lost patience ensued, plus more whining, a few tears, and then finally? She did it. All on her own. No help from me. Just like EVERY week. Sigh. And then I had to go to see the Cheetah Girls in concert right afterwards, and without any alcohol. Sucked.
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