I’m sitting here fighting back tears. Mondays are hard, and they’re not just hard for us grownups. they’re hard for our littles too.

Today was the first day back to school after an entire week off for Thanksgiving. Pey got herself up and ready at 4:45 this morning without so much as nudge from me! In fact, she was damn near ready to walk out the door before I even crawled out of my bed. She was ready to see her friends and ride her new scooter to school. She did great at that btw! I DID follow her to school just to make sure because I’m still THAT mom and I’m really struggling to let her go.

She was a tuckered out mess when she got home, I could see it in her face although she fiercely denied it. She was just “hungry.” Yeah…..Ok, Pey! Get a snack and let’s get started on your after school routine. I checked on her a few times and she was working hard, then it got quiet.

I just didn’t have the heart to wake her.

After a while she creeped out of her room. I guess that pork chop smelled too divine to miss! HA!

Now that she was awake and fed, it was time to get her homework done and study for a test coming up this week. Well that’s where the effing wheels came off. We had an epic meltdown about the homework, then once I thought we’d gotten through THAT, we had another meltdown because it was bedtime. I hadn’t considered that she’d taken a decent nap, so we negotiated a later bed time on the condition that she read a book for 15 minutes first. THEN she could have a bit of free time before bed.

She was putzing around about getting her book, so I looked at the clock and said, “Ok, now you need to read until 9:21 because you’ve been standing there NOT getting started.”
That was followed with a huff, an eyeroll and some stomping feet toward the bedroom. 5 years ago Amanda would have lost her shit and possibly dealt her a healthy ass whoopin. But I didn’t. deep breath Amanda..deep breath…

Cue another, even MORE dramatic meltdown, complete with whining, alligator tears, “I’m sorry”s and “I’m not tired”s.

We had a nice little talk about what “tired” looks like and how “actions, not words” are how we judge people. And she was sent off to bed still mad at me with tears in her eyes and a scrunchy up nose. Nobody likes consequences for attitude 🙁

Mondays are hard on us all sometimes. Parenting is hard.
I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but I know I’m doing the best I can.

Mondays are hard, and sometimes it’s best to put yourself to bed even when you don’t think you’re tired and be thankful that you’ve been given the hard days, so that when the good days are here, we enjoy every moment of them <3