Gotta love the morning tantrums.  Poor Avery washed her clothes last night, but they didn’t get put into the dryer.  She had her outfit in there and ‘nothing’ else to wear.  Let’s just say it was a rough morning get her out of the house.

Do you know what it’s like to try to change the mind of a child who has something VERY specific and is completely inflexible?

I would like to back up about 12 years BC (Before Children).  I had a husband who watched tantrums of other children and didn’t understand why the parents couldn’t get a grip on their children.  When asked by his sister what HE will do when HE has children, his answer was simple; I’m going to rationalize with them!!!

Fast forward two daughters and about a million tantrums later and let me just say…..”How’s THAT working for you daddy???”

As he went through the house this morning trying to calm her down, it’s the tantrum equivalent of taking candy from a baby’s mouth.  There’s NO getting through and all his rationalizing isn’t even coming close to touching the goings on in her mind

I honestly felt  bad for both of them this morning.

You can’t fight fire with fire and that was pretty much what started happening.

He totally doesn’t get women.  And he doesn’t even realize that this ten year old is gonna get a whole lot worse in a few years.  And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have enough rationalization in his arsenal to survive what he’s about to endure.

Boys and girls are totally different.  And part of the problem (for him) is we have another daughter who is the polar opposite of her sister.  So her easy going nature makes Avery’s tantrums look like something out of a Steven King novel by comparison.

But what hubby doesn’t understand is Avery is totally normal.  She’s just Avery.  And she had a bad morning and he couldn’t fix it and got just as frustrated as she was – which makes it worse.  His instinct is to fix.  So when she asked me if she could buy lunch because she was going to be late and I told her NO, because I wasn’t going to reward her tantrum; she grabbed a bag of pretzels to get through the day…Chris wasn’t totally happy with that.  But I’m standing my ground.  Next time Avery will appropriate her time a little better.

She might be a little hungry today, but I’m sure her friends will share with her and she won’t die.  She can eat when she gets home.

I’m not trying to throw my family under the bus;  because I know we are like so many families out there.  I honestly feel bad for Chris and Avery because they don’t get each other.

Chris and I butt heads all the time, because I am Avery.  So the fact that he doesn’t get her almost makes me giggle.  I’ll just have to talk them both down and eventually we will all get through it.

It’s just another day in the Cunningham household.

Happy Monday!