Tales from a Teacher-Mama

Sarah has some anger issues.

Recently, she got upset because one of the neighbor kids was trying to follow her into the house when she didn’t want him to. I told Sarah that the boy could come in for a minute, and that caused her to redirect her fury at me. She came straight at me across the room, eyes wide with rage, teeth clenched and bared, and her little fist cocked back. When she reached me, she actually punched me right in the mouth.

With my lips smarting, I stood and tossed the book I’d been reading on the floor. I pointed toward the stairs and told her to get to her room and stay there. She went, screaming all the way. Once upstairs she slammed her door a few times, calling down, “Hear this, Mommy?” as if I might have missed it.  She followed that act by throwing a couple of toys down the stairwell–generally in my direction–and shrieked, “That’s what you get for giving birth to me!”

I couldn’t help it–I laughed. She doesn’t have any idea how true that statement is.