Mean mommy

Sometimes I feel so mean. I really don't want to be the bad guy but I am tired and just don't have the patience for the "no" answer that inevitably follows any request. Why can't Katya sometimes just say "yes mom" and go to bed without a fight. Alex had a talk with her last week about how it is in her best interest to not say "no" to everything - prompted by her decision to not stop the gymnastics routine in front of the TV when asked (to which Alex responded that she is now not allowed to do any gymnastics anywhere in the house anymore). But it doesn't seemed to have helped.


I am so tired. Tired of working so much, tired of getting home at 7:30 only to fight with Katya about what is for dinner, fight about doing her homework, and then fight about going to bed. Last week Alex was on bed duty because I was to the point where I was tired of fighting over it and was resigned to just telling Katya that she had to be in her room after 9 pm and I didn't really care if she went to sleep or not as long as she didn't make noise so that I couldn't sleep and got up for school the next morning. Alex didn't like that idea and so he said that he would try getting her to bed and that worked out very well for me (I don't know how it worked out for him!). I lost my temper tonight with her, though, when I told her and Kaylie that it was time for bed and they looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language (believe me - Katya knows what the phrase bedtime in English means) and said that they had decided that they were sleeping in the family room instead of their beds. Kaylie relented after I told them sternly that they were not sleeping downstairs but it took me physically picking Katya up off the couch and nudging her in the direction of her bedroom to which she responded by storming off and crying. I think Alex is definately back on bed-duty.