Kids will be... monsters

Shawn was working on his car at a friend's house for the better part of the day today so I didn't really do much. Normally I would've been going out of my mind trying to find something to do but I just kind of hung around the house all day. My mom came over later in the evening on her way back from the boyfriend's house. Can you believe she went there with her camera and didn't take a single picture of his dogs? Shame, shame. He has a few hunting dogs and they all sound adorable but no pictures for me to see for myself. ;) I never thought my mom would be in a relationship with a hunter but as far as I can tell, he's one of the good ones. He's not one of those idiots who is out to destroy every animal he can just for sport. He wants to preserve the animals that he hunts and wants them to have places they can go that they won't be hunted. He also doesn't hunt bambi, which for me is a big plus in his favor. Sounds like he's more into pheasants and animals that he can hunt with the dogs. I'm not sure if that includes turkeys or not. I'll be sure to grill him on it eventually. ;) They don't talk about it much being as we're not... into that.

Later in the evening, after Shawn got home, I began to quickly lose my patience with Jasmine. Most days, I'm the one that can handle most of her attitude without getting too bent out of shape. For whatever reason, I'd just had enough tonight. Since just about the day she turned 3 (six months ago), she has had this attitude about her. It's literally like living with a teenager. She slams doors when she's pissed about something, talks back and in general acts like a brat. This isn't all the time but it's when she's not getting her way. We rarely give into her and try to stay as consistent as possible but it doesn't seem to be improving much. I think tonight I'd just had enough. My husband walks in the door and while he's in the bathroom, she throws a fit about something and slams her door. I hadn't been spanking her for quite some time as it didn't seem to be making a difference in how she acted. Tonight I'd just had it and she got a spanking. (she slammed her door and then began throwing toys at the door) Please don't comment or email me if you think I'm abusing my child by smacking her on the butt. I don't want to hear it. She climbed onto the couch and started crying. (she was sitting with me) When her daddy (who recently she's been pronouncing Dad-T... probably because I've made so many comments about how cute it is when she says it that way) came out of the bathroom, she said to me that she was going to tell daddy on me and I would get in trouble for hurting her feelings. Daddy told her she was in trouble and that mommy wouldn't be getting in trouble. She cried some more. She mouthed off a few more times, and a few more times got told to knock it off, the crying continued. Thankfully, she's not normally a crier as that aggravates me way more than the attitude. My husband sort of took over from that point forward with her. I think it was around the time that I said I just want to get in the car, drive away and keep going. After I had an hour or so, I was better. Not normal, but better. The rest of the night she was quick to cry over just about anything. I just know this is going to get ten times worse right after this baby is born. I think I'm getting frustrated that she doesn't seem to be getting past this. I don't think we're doing anything wrong. Maybe she's just a little more headstrong that some kids her age. We never let her get away with the mouthing off or the attitude so you would think eventually, she would try another tactic. Then again, she's recently learned that sweet manipulation works wonders. When she wanted Shawn to come play with her dollhouse the other day, she first said very sweetly please and then she kissed his forehead and told him she loved him. She laid it on so thick that no one could've said no. Today when she was asking me for something she said please, please mommy with sugar on top and smiled innocently. I'll take that over screaming at me any day. It was really funny when we were in bed and she asked Shawn for something and he asked her what the magic word was. She paused and said Abracadabra.