I would like to point out to people that Charli will not eat eggs..... please note what she does with the whisk covered in raw egg!!!
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Kinder Hell (I mean Gym)....
Well today started better than most - everyone slept until 7.30am and I woke up feeling refreshed - a state that I rarely awaken in anymore. We breakfasted, showered and dressed..... and we headed for the local Youth Club's kinder gym class. The first one. Our trial class. Our last class ever if there is indeed a higher power looking over us..... it was horrendous. Not because the instructors weren't good. Not because the other mums were awful or unfriendly (though by the end of the class I think a few of them did indeed sigh a sigh of relief when they realised that I had decided not to return next week). The problem? A gym full of lots of bounce-y mats, bars, ladders on walls (!!!) and a two-year old who was in no mood to be told to 'wait', that it was not yet 'her turn' or that 'you are not allowed to play on that equipment, only this equipment'.
I turned into public housing mother screaming at Charli to get down off the wall while I had Mackenzie attached to my boob and screaming with mouth full of nipple because I was not exactly being calm enough to let the milk flow. Do you have that picture in your head? I hope so because I'll carry it with me for many days. To be fair on myself I did start out calmly using the correct principles. .... giving Charli choices about either playing on the gym mats properly or hopping in the pram and going home. But when I had to feed Mackenzie... well Charlotte quickly realised that my options for disciplining her were indeed limited and unlike at home there was no bedroom to be conveniently locked in while she threw a tantrum of nuclear explosion like proportions. I had finally been given the ultimate test in parenting - a toddler tantrum in public with a baby screaming to be fed. I failed appallingly. But that's okay. I'm sure that there will be many more. Some I will handle with more aplomb. Some I am sure will be just as bad as today. I trust that there will be no permanent psychological damage - to either the toddler, the baby or myself. But one thing is very clear - there will be no more kinder gym until it becomes legal to use a long handled cattle prod to keep children under control in public.
I turned into public housing mother screaming at Charli to get down off the wall while I had Mackenzie attached to my boob and screaming with mouth full of nipple because I was not exactly being calm enough to let the milk flow. Do you have that picture in your head? I hope so because I'll carry it with me for many days. To be fair on myself I did start out calmly using the correct principles. .... giving Charli choices about either playing on the gym mats properly or hopping in the pram and going home. But when I had to feed Mackenzie... well Charlotte quickly realised that my options for disciplining her were indeed limited and unlike at home there was no bedroom to be conveniently locked in while she threw a tantrum of nuclear explosion like proportions. I had finally been given the ultimate test in parenting - a toddler tantrum in public with a baby screaming to be fed. I failed appallingly. But that's okay. I'm sure that there will be many more. Some I will handle with more aplomb. Some I am sure will be just as bad as today. I trust that there will be no permanent psychological damage - to either the toddler, the baby or myself. But one thing is very clear - there will be no more kinder gym until it becomes legal to use a long handled cattle prod to keep children under control in public.
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