The Power Struggle

It always amazes me how quickly a tantrum or emotional breakdown can occur in our household.  There are moments where I have found myself just shaking my head in absolute confusion lately when my children literally have become a scene from the Exorcist and I literally think their heads have spun around.  It's like one moment we are happy and singing, and then someone looks says something or does something to set the moody child off and we are done.  Like no way to calm the kiddo down except for letting them rant it off in their room.  I attempted the whole listen to find out what is wrong, but I have come to the conclusion that when that craziness comes out I have to let them work it out and then when they want to talk I will listen when I am not being yelled at or told that I am the meanest mom ever.  (I've won that award by the way as I hear it EVERY DAY!)

I have to say that I think all this chaos and roller coaster of emotions has to stem from the big changes that will happen soon.  Lets think about it, Audrey will be going to school and Ayden will lose his daily playmate, and once September hits, Ayden will be starting preschool himself.  I want to believe that this is what is going on because I would hate to think my kids are becoming monsters, but that is always a  slight possibility.

We are all trying to find our spot on the totem pole in this house right now, and I totally feel for Tyler, because currently there are three of us competing for the top.  Unfortunately lately I feel like I am not winning at all.  With Ayden going through his threenager year and Audrey attempting to always be the boss, I often wonder if I will ever make it back on top.  There are days where I feel I might just make it there and that we are all comfortable in where we are on that totem pole, and then there are days like today where I literally just want to grab Tyler, sit on the deck with a bottle of wine, and let the kids work it out themselves.  Don't worry that never happens because I attempted it the other day and well they followed us to the deck because they cannot be away from us for too long.

So today as we get off to a rocky start because Audrey attempted to convince Ayden that she was going to starve if she didn't get any of his cereal (she already ate a large breakfast but did not want him to have as much of her cereal as he did), I realize that I am in a huge battle of power.  I probably will not win, but I have an excuse, I live with two strong willed children, one on a power trip of wanting to be in charge of everything and a threenager.  With that being said, I know I am not the only one in the same boat, so I pray for you all going through the same thing.  I pray that your sanity remains and that your glass of wine does not run dry:)