Patience

I've often been asked how much a kid would have to do in order for me to start yelling. I tend to have a lot of patience with kids, more so than adults. I will do everything possible to NOT yell at kids. Well this weekend I found out just how much a kid (or kids) have to do to cross that line into yelling territory. Here's the story:

3 kids, girl-8 1/2, boy-6, boy-almost 2

Saturday night:

Youngest boy is getting 3 molars in at the same time. He's cranky, irritable, and just all around whiny. I was rocking him back to sleep for the 5th time after I orajelled & tylenoled him. 8 yr. old & 6 yr. old were in the living room watching a Disney movie on tv while having their before bedtime snack. It was 9pm. I got the youngest one back to sleep, laid him in his crib, and went to go pull a load of laundry out of the dryer to fold. I open and dryer and as I'm pulling out the clothes I'm noticing a lot of multi-colored clothes that weren't multi-colored when I put them in there. I look a little closer, it's crayon. CRAYON!!! After a little investigative work I find out that 8 yr. old and 6 yr. old put an entire box of crayons-(24 count)-into the dryer while I was rocking the baby back to sleep. I lost it.

"GET IN YOUR ROOMS NOW" I bellowed to them. *insert whining about their movie not being over here* "I'M NOT ASKING YOU, I'M TELLING YOU. BEDROOMS, NOW!" Off they went. I then rounded up all of their crayons, every last one of them, and put them into a container, hidden away for safe keeping. After I calmed down, about 20 minutes, I got them from their bedrooms and sat them down on the living room couch. They would be getting 5 crayons back a day. For every day they used the crayons appropriately-(i.e. not in the dryer, or drawing on the walls...which they're also fond of)-they would get 5 more back. For every day they did NOT use the crayons appropriately, they would lose 5. *insert more whining about how it's not fair* In addition, their allowances-($10 a piece each week)-would be going towards buying their baby brother clothes to replace the ones they ruined with their little crayons in the dryer stunt. They asked about their clothes that were ruined, I told them they should've thought about that BEFORE they put the crayons in the dryer. *more whining about being unfair*

They then went to bed. And I stewed some more. Sunday morning came and they were both mad at me when they wanted to draw and only had 5 crayons between the 2 of them. I shrugged and told them they would get 5 more tomorrow if they used them the right way today. So yeah, a little tension going on right now between me and the 2 older ones. But I'm holding my own against hte incesant whining and full out double tantrums they're throwing over me being a b*tch-(the 6 yr. old's words, mind you. That's another post though).

Remind me again why I love my job?