I'll admit, I have a LOT of pet peeves. At the very tip top of my list though are
complaining and
lying. The girls' complaining bothers me so much because they have SOOOO many material things, they have sooo many people to love them and contribute to their "stuff", they have a whole collection of things at mom's house, at dad's house, at our beach house, at their grandma's houses... They go to an expensive school, nice vacations, and on and on I could go. So when they complain about something or pout that we're not going out to eat, or call us mean for sending them to bed early, it REALLY, REALLY gets under my skin. Lying bothers me for the same reason it bothers anybody. The person lying to me thinks I'm not worth the truth, or I'm too stupid to realize they are lying. Either way, it's an insult.
Jane (12) has been doing a really good job the last two weeks of keeping me flustered with pet peeve 1. This is how it went for a full two hours after school last week:
Jane gets in the care: "
I want a snack. Where are you taking us for a snack today?"
Me: "Well I don't OWE you a snack every day. It's an occasional treat. Today we have to run some errands until your voice lesson."
Jane: "But I need a snack. I'm starving. I'm not happy without a snack."
Me: "Sorry. Did you eat all your lunch? You went 4 full months during play practice with no afternoon snacks and you survived just fine."
Jane: "But I was angry and hungry the whole time." (Pouting, huffing, puffing)
Jane: "Where are we going for dinner tonight?"
Me: "We're eating at home."
Jane: "What? Why?
I want to go out!!"
Me: "Sorry. Menu is planned. Daddy wants to eat at home because we've been out a lot lately."
Jane: "Well, what are you cooking?
I want chicken cordon bleu."
Me: "Sorry. Groceries are bought and menu is planned. We are having chicken, but not chicken cordon bleu."
Jane.: "That sucks.
I want chicken cordon bleu." (More angry faces and pouting, huffing, puffing)
Jane at the store: "I don't want you to get this (game to play outdoors at beach house). I won't play it.
I want badminton."
Me: "Badminton won't work on the beach. It's too windy. You'll never get the birdy over the net. Everything will blow down."
Jane: "Fine. I just won't play anything."
Jane, holding up some other item: "
I want this."
Me: "Maybe you can come back and buy it with your own money."
Jane: "
I want you to get mean extravagant Easter present."
(It took every ounce of self-control I possess not to lose it right then!)
Me: "We don't do Easter presents. And you definitely don't need anything extravagant. You should hear yourself right now. You sound like a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum. You're angry about everything I say or do. You need to snap out of it."
She proceeded to go sulk in a corner until I came and found her when I was ready to check out. We had a few minutes before voice lesson, so I took them for a Sonic slush. Not even a thank-you or word or appreciation after all that whining and pouting!
I realize a big part of this is that her step-dad's mom and her mother pretty much cave to all of her demands, and then she comes over here and thinks she can treat me the same way. Sorry, not gonna happen here. Her dad and I sat her down that night and talked about how negative she's been lately. She seemed shocked by how much she had said "I want" in just one afternoon. We showed her how all her angriness and poutiness just makes people not want to be around her. It doesn't accomplish anything but to make her unhappy and drag down everyone around her. I will dread going to pick her up in the afternoons if being around her is a constant beat-down. If she's like that around friends, she won't have any left pretty soon. I hope we got this message through while she still half-way listens to us before the full-force teen years take over soon. It sucks all the fun right out of game night/family night when she gets angry the second she starts losing anything. No one wants to be around an angry person. And it makes it so hard for me to stay in a good mood. We explained to her that since we are the people responsible for her well-being and happiness, when she is constantly UNHAPPY, it makes us want to quit trying. If nothing I do ever makes you happy, why try? I'm not stupid enough to believe that if I just give in to all her "I wants" she will be happy. It just makes her worse (as bio-mom is soon to find out, too late).
