guilt

I only spent an hour with Rose this morning, and it was basically one tantrum after another. I felt like I couldn't say or do anything right! It was awful!!

Here are the reasons I made her cry:
1. I told her it was time to get up and get dressed. (This was 10 min after Mike first woke her up.)
2. I told her that either she could pick out her clothes or I would.
3. I told her that I was going to pick out her clothes because she wasn't getting out of bed.
4. I told her that I loved how her socks matched her shirt.
5. I told her that we couldn't eat chocolate for breakfast.
6. I told her that I got her 2 new books from the library last night, after I returned "Martha Bakes a Cake" because it was due.
7. I told her that we couldn't go back for "Martha Bakes a Cake" today because it's a school day, but that we could go to the library again this weekend.
8. I asked her which shoes she wanted to wear to school.
9. I told her that she couldn't wear her snowpants because they were already at school.
10. I told her that Daddy had put her birdy blanket in the blue car so she could use it to stay warm this morning.
11. I asked her how many hugs she wanted before I dropped her off at school, and I gave her the six that she asked for.

Sigh. I felt like a pretty awful parent, and I'm sure my vaccillating between ignoring the worst of the tantrum and offering her lots of hugs and sympathy for her genuine distress did not help the situation at all.

Parenting is hard.