I’ve started this blog post four times already.
I’d like to be more cheery. I really would, but here’s the thing. Well, things:
Oscar has spent all day hitting, pinching and smacking people over the head with mops. Much telling off and the liberal use of the naughty step, which is about as much use as a snorkel to a librarian.
I put a film on this afternoon. He decided he did not like it. He kept turning the television off and hitting people who tried to turn it back on. I took him away to calm down because it was either that or shoot him.
Matilda is being petulant teenager. We did crafts this morning. I emptied boxes of stuff onto the table, bead making kits, electronic pens that blow sparkly ink all over the kitchen with gay abandon, dream catcher maker kits, and Hama beads galore. All the things we get as gifts and I put away thinking, ‘God! The mess.’ I suggested that rather than each having what they had been given they embrace the idea of sharing and doing stuff together. Tallulah, who I was expecting to kick off, was all for it. Tilly was petulant and sulky and said that she didn’t want to share her Hama beads, etc, etc. It took the wind out of her sails a bit when she found that they were actually Tallulah’s. You get the drift. ALL BLOODY DAY.
Tallulah wet her pants and hid the wet pants in her pants drawer. She was caught red handed by Jason. She then denied it outright and exploded in a tearing tantrum for about an hour. It turns out that this is not the first time she has done this. I am at my wits end. We weren’t cross because she peed her pants. We were cross because she lied and decieved us. And we’re really worried. I thought this was getting better. She has practically stopped wetting at nights and has been so much more cheery lately. And now this. I don’t know what to do. So am doing nothing. As yet.
On top of that, it has been grey, rainy and humid all day long.
I have also cleaned the house.
I have also cooked two hot meals, prepared breakfast and helped the children make a cheesecake.
I have done another two hour driving lesson in which I nearly abandoned ship and demanded to go home. This was before I stalled at an enormous junction trying to turn right, right in the middle of the junction, surrounded by eight lanes of revving cars. Oh crap. Every time I come home from a lesson I am wringing with sweat.
The only book I have read today was the Highway Code.
The only nice thing to happen was that I got some more clues for my genealogy addiction. Lovely!
There is nothing else nice to say, so I shall tell you about one of the ‘stories’ from my family that I would dearly like to find out about. I so hope it is true.
My maternal great grandfather was called Walter, Walter Sturman. He had many brothers and sisters, and all of them were naughty to some degree or other. The family legend has it that one of the brothers got very drunk one night (unsurprising. Walter actually died sneezing into his pint of beer one night!) and had a fight with a chap somewhere along the railway line. He picked up a handy shovel and bashed this bloke’s brains out. After which he had to assume an alias and go on the run. Someone told me he was known as ‘Mad Jack, Shovel, Murderer.’ Not much of an alias really. The name does give it away. But hey, nobody said he was bright.
When I asked where he ran away to my gran said; ‘Oh! Loughborough!’
Now if you know anything about the Midlands, and let’s face it, why should you? You will know that Loughborough is a whole twelve miles away from Leicester at most. I was expecting a more Ronnie Biggs answer like Rio or something.
Still, in looking at the family tree for that branch of the family which someone else has researched, if their facts are right, even in 1600 we were still only in Claybrooke Magna, which is only five miles from where my parents live now. We aren’t known for our travelling genes. More like our stupidity genes. Remind me, if I ever have to assume an alias that ‘Karen Car Crash’ is probably just not going to cut it.
Katy-my friend’s daughter had an immature bladder and she wet the bed, and sometimes her pants,until she was 12 and then it rectified itself virtually overnight.You could try the doctor-I know Tallulah might be mortified,but everyone seems to be upset, so it could be a different approach. Your genealogy research is fascinating-I’m planning to do ours,but I know it will really suck up the time.(I’m incredibly nosy too!)
I second Jenny’s comment. Well worth a GP visit to check there is no underlying cause for the soggy knickers – may even be a water infection (?Oscar’s little problem the other day) if she has been fine until recently.
Re driving, I never did it either but feel that, as with most things, success depends on how committed you are to the end result. Committed as in determined not sectioned . . . . . Make a list of pros and cons with a reward structure for progress made. How do you feel about Rescue Remedy or homeopathic or similar treatment for the anxiety the lessons cause?
See, your family history is way more interesting than mine. No murderes on my Grandma’s side at least. The bit about him running away to Loughborough did make me laugh
Poor Tallulah. I can offer no sage advice, only that we have had similar problems with Poss from time to time.
Pudding has taken to running around smacking people and shrieking “bumhole!” at the top of his lungs. He is four next week. I fear I will never be able to send him to kindy, he’ll never be well-behaved enough. You have plenty of time to beat some sense into Oscar. Don’t worry.
when my boys were small and the battles were constant, i found that with A (who oscar seems to resemble) that sitting him in a corner with his fact to the wall was effective only the first one or two times. after that it was deprivation punishment. perhaps you’ll need to take away Oscar’s “scroopdriver” or other beloved implement of destruction for a period of time.
with S, it was the opposite — physical punishment would have been too harrowing for us, so we just refused to speak to him (conversation, i mean) which drove the poor kid to distraction and, eventually, remorse.
there’s no one effective means of punishment (hence recividist criminals, i guess), i think a rotating schedule of them works best.
i also must chime in on the whole GP thing with Tallulah. my brother had this problem also until he was about 12, and we found out a simple routine and some mild medication would have made all the difference. life is nothing but one humiliation after another, i fear.
no murderers in our tree either (plenty of monkeys, though).
hope things go better.
My dad researched his family tree, and though he only went back to about 1700 and something, he discovered his ancestors came from Wigan.
With a surname like Hughes, (common though it is), he was hoping for Welsh at the very least, if not something more exciting. Nope, Wigan. Not exactly far from Manchester.
I’m sure Tony’s family tree would be more interesting (it would at least take us across the atlantic), but I am scared what I may find out!
And Elliot does the pant hiding thing. It’s not good when you find the hidden stash….
Jenny
Thanks for the hint re: bladder. I am going to discuss it en famille, but it sounds like a plan.
Don’t do the genealogy. It’s sucking me in. I spent about fourteen hours a day thinking about dead people!
Sharon
I’m on my third bottle of rescue remedy and I’ve tried various homeopathy things to no avail. I think I need the vegetable equivalent of valium.
I do have a reward system worked out though. Will formulate plan and then amaze the blogosphere with it!
Bev
I only hope the murdering bit is true! How exciting. How weird that I hope the murdering bit is true!
Ali
I’m sorry to hear about the smacking, but you’ve got to love someone who runs about saying bumhole. My new favourite is cock monkey!
Bronxbee
I put him to bed today, right in the middle of having some friends over. That took the wind out of his sails rather. I don’t think he’s attached enough to any ‘thing’ at the moment. Although that will change. In the meantime we are back to the threat of bed and it does seem effective, for now. As you say, change is good and I am not going to rely on any one thing.
Jo
I did think about ransacking her drawers. Then I decided not to! Wimpy I know.