Reasons my Children Cry

We're in a bad phase. A pushing boundaries, we're not quite sure how to handle things so let's cry phase. These come and go, and each time we come out the other side better for it, with new communication skills, more patience and an enhanced ability to reason. But going through them just plain sucks, any way you slice it. A psychologist that specializes in child psychology knows that children can cry for a wide variety of reasons.

So, here are the reasons my children tantrumed today, starting from 8 a.m. when they woke up. (At the time of this post, it's only 9:30 a.m.)

1) I didn't stay in bed until both children could come up and lay with me in bed. First Natalina cried about this in outrage for her sister. Then Dulce came upstairs and cried for herself.

2) They both cried when I dared to go to the bathroom and asked them to shut the door (either with them in the bathroom with me or outside.)

3) Dulce decided to tantrum while brushing her teeth. I have no idea why. So I had her spit, then I placed her outside the bathroom, where she tantrumed about not being able to rinse her mouth first.

4) They tantrumed over who got to go down the stairs first.

5) Natalina tantrumed over where I sat on the couch to hug Dulce.

6) Natalina tantrumed over how quickly I was able to remove her overnight diaper.

7) Dulce tantrumed about me sitting on the orange couch, then about me sitting on the green couch, then me sitting on the orange couch again, trying to dictate exactly where I sit.

8) They fought over a toy. Dulce wanted her turn, but she was going to play the same song Lilly just played and Lilly didn't want that.

9) Dulce tantrumed because my hair wasn't down. Lilly tantrumed because it wasn't up high enough.

By 10 a.m. all of this had finally subsided, and we're back to normal. For each of these, which obviously came one after the other after the other, I responded the same way, explaining to them that they can't cry and flop when things don't go their way, telling them to ask me nicely or do whatever else was needed to solve this like big girls, and if that didn't work, I put them in their room for a bit to calm down and then talk about it. (Dulce will now look me in the eye and say, "Let's talk about this." Hah.)  I took the toy away and put it on top of the fridge, which is now overrun with coveted toys. The plastic dog, Mr. Potato Head and a leap frog letters game now find the top of the fridge their permanent home.

I expect the girls will pull out of this in a few days to a week at most. I hope my sanity remains in tact until then.

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