Wild and Unruly

It's been a few days since I've posted, I know. Sometimes the time just gets away so fast it's hard to keep up with anything.

On the homefront: Things have calmed down quite a bit. Hubby and I waited a few days before having "The Talk" with Wild about the incident that happened last weekend. I'm glad we waited. It gave everyone time to cool their heels for awhile, gave Hubby and I a chance to really evaluate the situation and figure out how to best handle things and it gave Wild the opportunity to really just think about things. The conversation on Sunday went much better than I thought it would. Such is the advantage of waiting a few days. She was receptive and talking to us beyond the typical "I don't know," response when asked a question. Yes, she actually talked. I asked her why she was so unhappy living with us and really, she didn't have much to say. She couldn't nail anything on the head except she didn't like not being able to do whatever she wanted to do and she felt that we treated her sister differently than her.

Well, no, she's not going to get to do whatever she wants and go wherever she wants, that's not going to happen. When she's 18, the world is her oyster and she can stay out till all hours doing who-knows-what. Only if she's living in her own place, of course. My house, my rules.

Secondly, yes, her sister does get treated differently. She's six. We don't expect the same level of responsibility from a six-year-old that we do from an almost 15-year-old. Can we be a little stricter with Unruly? Probably. Especially when it comes to punishment for picking on her sister. And I explained to Wild that it goes both ways....if we are going to punish Unruly for picking on Wild, then Wild will be punished for picking on Unruly. OR...they can figure out how to solve their problems on their own instead of running to me yelling "MOM! She blah blah blah....!" every time one starts in on the other.

Are things still tense? Yes, but not nearly as bad as they were. Will things change around the house? Absolutely. But sometimes, change is good, and in this case, I think change will be beneficial for all of us.