Screaming in frustration....

Or at least Tabitha was from 5:30 until 6:05pm tonight. If any of my neighbors are reading, I apologize in advance. The volume level will probably continue for another few days....

Turns out that the influx of family last week & weekend may have been too much for the kid. Monday was a not-so-good day at school for various reasons, including that she was finally being held accountable for her behavior. She's now been introduced to "time-out" at school and Tab & "T.O." aren't really friends. I discovered Wednesday that she has been doing all kinds of manipulative behavior at her after-school program and she's p***-ing off a bunch of the kids. Then last night she tried to pull the same tricks with me at bedtime. That got her a spanking & straight to bed and she was informed that she had reached the point of no return....

That her behavior had become bad enough, that Mommy was left without a choice....

That as of Thursday morning, Mutzig Military Academy was starting at our house.

This is how my brother & I refer to our method of behavior modification. Essentially it consists of I ride her sorry little a** until she learns that I and Michael are the bosses here and that she will treat us with respect and certain behaviors will not be tolerated. She had a pretty good idea of what was involved too since she witnessed her cousin Drew going through "cadet training" on more than one occasion while they were here in May.

So today was the first day of MMA, and I'm pleased with how today has gone. She's not, but her opinion doesn't really count. That would be because right now I'm being her mother and not her friend and she does not like that, and I am being considerably more drill-sergeant than I have been in the past with her. (Must have scared Michael too, he mopped the kitchen floor after dinner -- hmmm pleasant side effect maybe?)

So she had "trouble" getting out of bed this morning, turned off her clock, kept pretending to be asleep. So she lost all her blankets, her pillow, had the lights turned on and the tunes cranked up to at least 30-40 decibels. She also took so long to get ready that she missed breakfast and had to deal with eating a banana while walking to school. Needless to say, she was less than thrilled to see me pick her up this afternoon. In the afternoons since it's been 106 F lately, I drive over to get her, and when we got home she refused to get out of the car. Eventually, after 10 minutes she came in; it got too hot in a closed garage. She's stubborn but she's not stupid. So then she got parked on a kitchen stool for the next 45 minutes, 35 of which she screamed continuously at a pitch designed to shatter glass. (Note to self - get more earplugs....) Once she stopped screaming was when the time-out process began at home. We had a number of false starts, i.e. she'd tip herself off the stool and fall on the floor. "Oh, this is soooo sad, but I'll help you get right back up there." Or she'd hold the stool and try to hop it over someplace else, at which point "Oh, this is soooo sad but you and the stool stay here" and she'd be returned to "start". Michael walked in at about the 25 minute mark and he looked a little unglued. At the same time the front doorbell rang for one of our neighborhood kid's school fundraiser.... Delightful timing....

I actually managed to stay kind of zen about the entire evening, and more than once had to fight to keep from laughing. She ate dinner reluctantly, as I guess a banana for breakfast just doesn't go as far as they used to. And I had packed her lunch for today and it wasn't as tasty as usual....

Then for the rest of the evening she couldn't get away from me. She put away laundry, cleaned her room, scrubbed her bathroom (twice actually because she intentionally made a huge mess while brushing her teeth), did reading practice, made her lunch and did her bedtime routine with me essentially bossing her though each & every step. And she was in bed with the lights out at 8:15pm. She has totally lost all TV and video game privileges. The child safety locks on the Jeep have been activated again & she can't get out until she's let out. And if need be, I'm prepared to strip her room down to the bare minimum (and it's fairly sparse now by typical 8 year-old standards....)

Harsh........Yup (although it's not like the real world will cut her any slack....)

Mean.........Oh...Probably

Necessary to get the spoiled rotten princess back on the right path......most definitely

Me, frankly I'm looking forward to what she tries to cook up for tomorrow. I have a long list of chores that need doing at the house and it's really a lot of fun watching her do the work..... <wicked snicker a la Dr. Evil>