Control

I just tweeted (no, you can't follow me, as it isn't anonymous...but thanks for asking) that I have no control over Sabrina. This morning was a disaster. Everyone knows: do not announce a consequence if you cannot follow through. "Sabrina, you may not throw chalk." Third time: "Sabrina, you may not throw chalk. I will take the chalk away from you if you throw it again." Fully intending to follow through. Until she threw the chalk, I started to gather it in a bag, and even holding the bag above my head, she was able to wrest it from me by yanking my sweater, pulling my hair, and such, until my arm was no longer above her level.

This was the worst of this morning, but certainly not the only trouble I had.

There are small glimmers of light, though! Sabrina wants to take the new washcloth I bought her to her daddy's house. Fine, whatever, but she used it in the bath last night and she may not put it in her suitcase until it is dry. This morning I noticed her washcloth wasn't hanging up. "Did you put your washcloth in your suitcase?" "Yes." "Is it all the way dry?" "No, I mean yes." "If it isn't dry, it may not go in your suitcase." "It's just a little wet." "If it is wet, it will make everything in the suitcase icky. You can hang the washcloth up yourself, or I will take it out of the suitcase while you are at school." "No!!!" Fast forward two hours, I get home from dropping her off at school, and the first thing on my to-do list is to get the washcloth out of the suitcase. I open it, and there's no washcloth in it. That's weird, I think. Until I turned around and saw it--hanging on the towel rack!