Parenting Skills

Last night when I got home I sat down on the couch in our family room and took Camryn out of her carrier and handed her to Jay. I went to change my clothes and then started on dinner. About that time Jay asked Cade to hand him the snot sucker. Cade went through the furniture at a weird angle and tripped over the carseat. It was one of those things that turned into a big thing. I heard him angrily ask Jay who left the carseat there. Jay ignored him at first. Cade asked again so Jay told him that Camryn had left it there. Cade(getting more mad by the moment) said it was not her. Jay then told him that I was the one that left it there. I told Jay thanks for selling me out. Well of course Cade got mad at me because it hurt. Then out of the blue he asks me if I knew that Missouri ranked 48th. I asked in what? Whiny kids? That made him even madder. Jay started whispering to me to keep asking him what they ranked 48th in. Cade just kept saying don’t you know? Don’t you know anything? Of course Jay and I were rolling because Cade was so mad. I guess he heard something on the radio that Missouri ranked 48th in and he thought we should know, even though he didn’t know what it was for. He’d already gone through this routine with Jay. By this point Cade was a blubbering mess on the floor. Jay and I weren’t even bothering to hide our laughter at this point. The whole deal was so ridiculous. Then Camryn started laughing at him and that made us laugh even more. But at least when Camryn started laughing Cade did the laughing while crying thing.


I’d decided I’d have enough of that and went back to the kitchen to start dinner again. Camryn then chose to get fussy. When she cries she has real tears that pour down her f ace. She also had a snotty nose yesterday so when she cried her nose got really snotty. Her head also turns bright red when she gets mad. Jay decided to come in the kitchen with her. He was going to help me so he opened the freezer door. He hit Camryn’s head with it. It wasn’t hard enough to do any damage, but she is so dramatic about anything like that. She always has about a 3 second pause when something like that happens before the tears really flow. Jay and I just looked at each other and he said “oh no” and then the tears started flying….and Jay and I laughed some more. I almost took a picture of her but then I thought that might be too pitiful….bright red face and head, tears pouring down her face and snot running everywhere. With her parents laughing in the background. I told Jay not to worry about it. The night before I scraped her hand on the pantry door. She did the same thing but quickly recovered, which is exactly what she did last night.

Finally all the tears from both kids dried up and we were able to eat dinner. While we were eating Jay asked Cade if he knew that Camryn ranked 54th. Cade asked in what. Jay said don’t you know? Don’t you know anything? (it’s funnier when you hear the imitation Jay does of Cade). But anyway that was our life last night.

One thing Jay and I’ve definitely learned over the years is that you can never take yourself too seriously as a parent. Sometime you just have to laugh because there is nothing else you can do. They will get mad at you, they will get hurt…sometimes unintentionally by you…but the tears dry quickly…thankfully!