Sometimes Being A Parent Is Hard

Friday afternoon I called my mom. In my calmest, most sane voice, I asked her, politely, why she had never warned me against having kids. I mean, she had five, I thought she would've had some really good reasons for staying away from the whole being a parent thing. There's never been a mention of "days like these" from her. That's not true. I asked her one time why she thinks Maizey "fights" with her friends and when she thought it would end? She said never and told me that's why her and her girlfriends used to drink (does this ring a bell, Carolyn?!?!). (Sorry Mom).  Once again, this time, she just laughed. At first she was on Maizeys side saying lots of realllllly  helpful things like "oh, Maizey? My Maizey? That doesn't sound like her." and "Amy, that's funny... just relax about it." -
but by the end she was actually helpful.
I took her advice, mixed it with some of my own good sense, and came up with something that for the last two days, has worked for us.
Friday afternoon Brian and I looked at each other helplessly and asked who is this kid?? where did our little girl go? this kid? I could put her up for adoption. It was tough. And exhausting. I am not used to a high maintenance kid that is being, for lack of a better word, bad. Yes, she is nosy and likes to touch stuff that she shouldn't, but shes good about not wrecking things, making huge messes that she can't clean up and throwing fits over ridiculous things.  For some reason, she woke up Friday morning ready to do all those things.
As Maizey gets older and more interested in the goings on around her, the more she needs. More stimulation, more challenges. And as long has these tools (or whatever!) at her disposal, she is her usual happy, easy going, easy to please self, that doesn't need constant supervision and attention.It just took "one of those days" for me to realize it.
Saturday morning I didn't give her the chance to be that beastly little girl. I kept her busy all morning, so she was good and ready for her nap and when she woke up we kept her busy until dinner, then she was good and ready for bed. It took seeing different things *good morning five garage sales!!* and different people and places. We casually walked through the car show, ate muffins and drank coffee, worked on a garage sale steal to get it ready to paint, helped Papa water his garden and feed the chickens, went fishing, attempted to build a sand castle, and read a ton of books. It was not a lot of work for me, it was just getting out of the house a lot more than usual. It was finding things that were interesting for her, as well as for me. No, there aren't garage sales and car shows every day, nor is heading to the lake to go fishing for hours on end always an option, but there are plenty of other things to discover... there are always rocks to be thrown, flowers to be picked, dirt to be shoveled, parks to be played at. Pools and libraries and friends to be played with. And when all else fails, t.v didn't kill me, an hour or two of Dora in the middle of the day won't kill her either.
Its these kind of realizations that makes being a parent easier. The finding what works for us that keeps us smiling and happy.
So tonight, I am back to that place. The one where I love my little girl.
I will just try to remember to learn and evolve and grow along side her, rather than try to fight her.
p.s Thanks Mom, and sorry for being bad (which I have a hard time believing I was really ever that bad).