Woof.

Yesterday was rough parenting day, man.  Woof.  Starting with the Mother's day snub, moving on to the crazy-mom yell-a-thon, and then, after school, when I expected contrition and apologies, because that's what usually happens, we continued to fight. 

She should really be a scorpio instead of a capricorn.  We were trying to talk things out and get to the bottom of why she was being so vile, and all she could say was, "I'm just a BAD KID!  I have no SELF CONTROL  at all!  I'm just bad!"  which drives me crazy because I feel manipulated into making her feel better about herself while I'm mad at her.  So we talked and talked, and then she devised punishments for herself that I didn't think were warranted, but I also think she knew I wouldn't take her up on them. 

I told her no playdates for the week, and she was pissy about that, so she spent the afternoon in her room listening to her infernal audiobooks.  She emerged at dinner time, and was just as sullen and rude as ever!  Folks, this is unprecedented.  Usually, we have a fight, I yell, she sees the error of her ways and cries and apologizes, and then we talk and hug it out and we move on with our lives.  Luckily, I'd informed Rob earlier in the day that we had to be a united front against the rudeness because normally he's the good cop and I'm the bad cop.  He'll be all "Sweety, honey, mommy and daddy just want you to behave, okay sweetie, honey, bunny?" while I want to scream in her little face.

We sent her to bed without letting her read, and she cried and I watched with a sympathetic look on my face, and explained that mothers and daughters fight, and that this was only the beginning, and it was normal and okay.  Then we hugged, and she finally -FINALLY - went to sleep.

This morning she was better and I was better, and we were better and I'm relieved.  I was totally distracted and exhausted and sad yesterday.  This and hemorrhoids?  Seriously?