Friday Mish-Mash (A Lack Of Patience and Mississippi Fun Fact)

I had a post ready for you today regarding some possibly outdated marriage/relationship advice that I received yesterday from a very nice Southern woman. 

But after this morning's events I will be waiting to share that info with you.

This morning I want to talk about patience.  Or, in my case, lack of patience.

You guys?  I am seriously lacking in that important virtue known as patience.  If I was motivated enough to look up the definition I think it would say something like  

Patience: The ability to withstand annoying traits, habit's and things that are repetitive in nature without losing one's mind.

Unfortunately I don't have much of this trait.  And this morning The Seven Year Old officially wore what little I did have completely out.

And it was all over the most trivial thing ever...  A choir concert at her school.

The short version of this story goes a little something like this:

The Seven Year Old does not like her new music class much because, in her words, "It's noisy and loud.  And stupid."  The first graders have been practicing a program that is being performed at the school today.  She also claims that her "feet hurt after standing there for so long during the songs and the speeches in between each song."  When I inquire as to how long the program actually lasts I am answered with slumping shoulders and a very dramatic "About 8 hours!".  And on top of her aching feet she was not very excited about being told that she needed to wear a white long sleeved shirt.  So I've been trying to psych her up about the program and the white shirt.  You know...a version of reverse psychology or something.

But as you may have guessed by now, this was totally and completely useless.

Because the instant she woke up this morning she was crying and whining and going on and on and on about how she didn't want to wear the shirt and she didn't want to be in the program...  blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, cry... 

I didn't even have time to down a cup of coffee before the whining began.  And folks?  Mom + no coffee + whining over stupid stuff = Mom Melt down.

And I just lost it.

Of course I felt bad as I stood there yelling at her to get that white shirt on, suck it up and get ready because she was going to school and she was going to sing in the program.  End of story.

And of course she stood there looking at me and crying and basically before my tirade was over I already felt like the worst person and Mom ever.

And so I composed myself and apologized for losing my temper but explained that this sort of whining behavior is unacceptable...  You get the picture. 

And we made up.  Because I didn't want her showing up at school upset and claiming that I was the "meanest Mom ever". 

But inside I'm still seething.  I just don't get it.  I don't understand why some things with The Seven Year Old have to involve such dramatics.  And crying and sobbing like it's the end of the dang world.

Maybe it's because I don't cry.  Even if I might have a reason to cry I don't.

You would think that I would be used to these emotional, drama-queen outbursts from her by now because truthfully?  This is par for the course with her.  And I know that it will only get worse as she enters **gasp** puberty.  Sigh. 

But between these drama queen moments and The Toddler's ENDLESS questions day in and day out...my patience level is officially at an all time low.

Sometimes I just question if I was really cut out for this parenting thing.  I need a patience refill.  Or a clone that can take my place every now and then...

Okay.  More coffee.  Deep breath. 

*****

On a "lighter" note...time for a "Mississippi Fun Facts" moment.

Today's fact?  According to this site, Mississippi is "the fattest state in America".  It seems that a staggering 34.4% of Mississippians are obese.  While pondering this statistic, I find it ironic that The Seven Year old has yet to have a P.E. class at her new school.  At least to my knowledge.  If she has, it has been very few.  In fact, in talking to her teacher, the P.E. schedule would be a once every seven days rotation because there are seven first grade classes.  In comparison, her previous school had P.E. every other day.

Does anyone else see a possible connection here? 

 *****