The wear and tear that children do

The wear and tear that children place upon your body is not nice! physically and emotionally, I have not posted on my blog the entire time my children were here on vacation, I would have loved to share the moments as they were happening BUT my sweet "12" year old daughter has the office/bedroom when she stays, if you have read my blog before than you know of the trials and tribulations that I went through when I didn't know where my children were. So in short! WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING??????????/
ahh the love of a 12 year old girl who screams at her Mom (because I wouldn't let her eat on the couch that night for dinner ) so quickly goes to her room and slams the door and proceeded to announced that she is calling her dad and telling him that I am starving her. Quickly (she got my attention) she received her food in her room and didn't come out for the rest of the night, I also told her NO cell phone for the rest of the evening except to phone her "PARENTS" ( her dad and step-mom) but to her they are her parents, so what does the smart 12 year old girl do? she sits on the phone for 2 hours, yes I said 2 hrs with her "MOM' (are any of you hearing any resentments here) complaining how she is home sick and Needs to come home, ah yes it is only the beginning of the issues you may have with a tween girl in your home.

I have this friend that I work with who remains to be anonymous and the fact that she has her masters in parent education called to see how I was doing with the 3 kids at home, as I was speaking to her the wonderful children decided to engorge themselves on otter pops. after about the 8th one for each I finally started to yell, (I am a yeller & remember the parent educator on the phone) I threatened them with an inch of their lives, and yelled for them to put the otter pops down put their hands in the air and step away slowly. My friend quickly began to laugh at me and stated "You actually parent quite well" as I was shocked and flabbergasted my daughter chose to take down my 8 year old son, and proceeded to beat the crap out of him while I was on the phone, I am sure you can all think of what I was going to do next, yes yes threaten them that I would duct tape them to a tree in the back yard. It didn't work,

A couple of days later I took my 12 and 8 year old to the dentist 1st time EVER (their father is too busy spending money on cruises to Alaska and Motocross races) we discovered that the 12 year old needed 2 rotten teeth pulled, and the 8 year old needed 12 cavities filled and 1 tooth pulled, OK here's the horrible parent part, after they were pulled my daughter was curled up in a ball on my lap at the dentist crying for her Dad it took everything in my body to not say "well if your Dad would have taken you, you wouldn't be going through this" that would be called self control right there, after a few days they both wanted their teeth that were pulled so that their "Parents" could have them, they whined and cried and carried on, (by this time I usually give in) BUT!!!!!!! I was quite done with the situation and finally stated to them that since "I paid for the teeth I am keeping them"

There are many many conflicts that happened with them all, I am no longer feeling guilty for not being with them I am actually feeling sorry for them that they are not being brought up (this is my opinion and perception for how they treat me) with respect, gratitude, and great fullness. I don't know if its them, or if it's me, or what, Yes we have a lot to learn about each other, but respect is something that I am going to insist on.

I would like to say that all in all it was a wonderful warm and fuzzy vacation ( um yea I am totally lying) BUT it was hard, it was difficult, frustrating and I cried every single night that they were here. The hardest thing was to listen to them call their parents and tell them over and over and over again how they missed and loved them. I know it's going to take some time and understanding but I would give anything in the world for them to say it to me once, just once. I am heartbroken, and have this feeling in my heart and gut that I don't even have a word for.