YaYa is normally a gentle, always happy, and eager to please son. Thursday night, however, he was not so eager to please. He was not happy. Instead, YaYa wailed in total frustration as I told him that he could not watch TV, go to a friend’s house, OR play a video game. “It’s NOT fail,” he demanded. Fair or not, I was not backing down. He hadn’t done any homework while in the after school care for the third time this week. What made the issue worse was that he had been given some extra work to re-do that night.
He continued his screaming, crying and near tantrum behavior well into the first 30 minutes of us arriving at home. I could tell that he was tired and hungry. I could have sent him to be for the night, and he probably wouldn’t have given me much of a fight. I gave him a protein drink, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He ate. Finally, he gave up the fight and began his homework. It wasn’t until 9 PM that he was finally finishing. But then came the bedtime battle. He was beyond tired and I was too. His older brother was taking residence in their bathroom and YaYa didn’t want to brush his teeth in mine. He tried to make his way into the hall bathroom, but BoBo wouldn’t let him. Again, the drama started.
Having stayed home from work sick, and skipping my daily run, my defenses were down. I was a near-useless Mom without sleep or exercise. It was an ugly sight. I crawled into bed and YaYa crawled in with me. I didn’t care if his teeth were brushed or not. Not tonight anyways. We fell asleep and dreamed of an easier tomorrow.
