{"id":47,"date":"2012-01-24T03:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T03:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/quicksand\/"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","slug":"quicksand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/quicksand\/","title":{"rendered":"Quicksand."},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie got sent to the office at her preschool last Friday.  For hitting.  Fantastic.  She had a little trouble at the beginning of the school year, in September \u2013 but after a few weeks she was excelling.  We finished the semester on a really high note and received the sweetest letter from her teacher praising her \u201cwarm heart and wonderful spirit\u201d and ended it by saying she thought Charlie was a strong, determined girl who would go on to do GREAT things in life. Well, of course that had me bawling.  Because Vann and I like to think we know our little girl.  I\u2019ve written many, many times on this blog about my eldest.  She is a strong-willed child, always has been.  She\u2019s smart, quirky, kind-hearted, and full of boundless energy.  Putting both of our girls in preschool was one of the greatest decisions we\u2019ve ever made, but especially for Charlie \u2013 who loves school and loves learning.  She is an incredibly social child, loves her \u201cfriends\u201d (she even calls her babysitters that) and feeds off of other people.  She needs that interaction.  Sounds a lot like me \u2013 although truth be told, she really is Vann\u2019s mini-me in every other way. So, yes, I know I\u2019m not the only parent to ever receive a bad report about their child at the end of a school day.  And we\u2019ve had our struggles with her behavior before.  But it doesn\u2019t make it hurt any less.  And I have a really hard time separating my child\u2019s behavior from my parenting \u2013 my worth as a Mother. Have you ever felt that way? I know in my heart what a lovely child Charlie is.  And I\u2019m really trying to NOT beat myself up for all of this and give myself grace \u2013 but I\u2019m sorry \u2013 it is debilitating to even THINK I\u2019m<\/em> being judged because Charlie<\/em> doesn\u2019t have complete control over her emotions at 4 years old.  We are doing everything we can think of to support her teacher\u2019s efforts.  She had privileges taken away.  She spent the entire weekend without her army of stuffed animals in her bed \u2013 her most prized possessions.  She didn\u2019t get to go to the park on Friday after school, or watch TV, or have books at bedtime.  We\u2019ve both talked at length with her about her behavior and how we are supposed to treat our friends.  She got a spanking, even. So imagine my face when she comes up to me this weekend and tells me she\u2019s pooped in her pants.  And then proceeded to do it 3 or 4 more times.  Really???  Cause she\u2019s been potty-trained now for almost 2 years.  Infuriating. At her 4 year well check-up last September, I asked her pediatrician \u201cwhen\u201d she will cross over that invisible line into the land of a-teeny-bit-more-maturity-ville.  She told me that somewhere between 4 and 5 they (speaking in generals here) start to change.  I talk to her all the time about being a leader.  That\u2019s one of the things her teachers praises her for constantly \u2013 that she\u2019s a great leader in her class.  I know that will serve her very well in life.  If only we can harness her energy and teach her how to use it for good and not for evil.  Ha! I felt a little bit like I was falling down a well earlier today.  When I called her doc to get her insight on what\u2019s been going on with Charlie, she asked us to come in this week so we can speak face to face.  My mind went there<\/em> \u2013 you know, that she just doesn\u2019t want to tell me over the phone that there is something wrong with my child.  I\u2019m sure it\u2019s more that she just wants all the facts so she can equip me with the tools I need to parent Charlie in the best way.  Ugh.  Who wants a drink?  I\u2019m popping the cork right now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie got sent to the office at her preschool last Friday.  For hitting.  Fantastic.  She had a little trouble at the beginning of the school year, in September \u2013 but after a few weeks she was excelling.  We finished the semester on a really high note and received the sweetest letter from her teacher praising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}