Last week in family therapy Rose was explaining her bus troubles. She made me so proud when she admitted she causes problems 50% of the time. Accountability is a skill we've been working on for a long time. She immediately commented the other kids are just annoying.
I praised how she has done a really good job ignoring me and Dad when we annoy her, and maybe she could use those same skills when kids at school bother her. She looked right at me and said, "yea, but you guys are strict and scary."
I don't know if pride is the right word, but I basked in those words for seven days. It means all the schedules, consequences and discipline has paid off. Through complete trial by fire we've instilled a fear in Rose I had for my mom. A fear Mike had for his parents. An irrational fear. We've granted ourselves the natural, parent-given right to be the alphas in the house.
Of course, on the eighth day Rose defiantly took make-up to school she promised she wouldn't. (See the prior post for more details on the glittery clown incident.) Yet this time, I viewed the event with a slightly adjusted lens. This time, she wasn't pushing us away. She was just being her usual stubborn, I know better self.
And I realize now as I type there are a lot of rules I create to protect myself more so then my kid. It's those rules she is most likely to break, which is also the natural order of things.
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