Bad Parenting

Usually, I try to write about the good side of my children. They really and truly are good kids, although sometimes, like all children, they have their moments. Lately, however, they've been the biggest brats on the planet.

Since Leila's arrival, Simi and Asher have been spending all their time together. Seems like they're spending WAY too much time together and are starting to feed off each other's badness/get competitive with each other/get on each other's nerves/fill in the blank here.

The other night, during a celebration dinner for their Aunt, Simi and Asher turned into THE BIGGEST BRATS. They've never behaved so poorly in their lives - and they did it in front of a big audience. After the usual parenting techniques failed, I resorted to dysfunctional behavior - I screamed at them to stop. And at one point, to get Simi's attention when all else failed, I picked him up, put him on the couch, and YELLED at him to stop. I'm not proud of my behavior and the whole scene really shook me up. It shook up Simi too. He started to cry and the look on his face was just horrific. Yet it didn't stop his bad behavior. I hated the way Simi and Asher behaved and I hated the way I behaved. In a word, it was horrific.

The next day we went to a friend's 5th birthday party. While there, the mother of a little girl was screaming at her daughter. I recognized that behavior in my own actions from just the night before. So THAT'S how horrible it looks. From the outside, the screaming was as bad as it felt from the inside. I hope to never ever do that again.

Stay tuned while we figure out how best to conquer these new challenges....