This mommy thing ain't easy...

According to Ben (who is in time out in his room right now) I am the worst mommy in the world. I hear from behind his door, that "mommy is a bully and a stinker." What did I do to deserve such love? Nothing. I prayed extra hard this morning that God would grant me additional love and patience with the kids today because Heaven knows, I need more patience. So I think I have done a pretty good job of keeping cool and calm and explaining why we don't hit our sister, or why we don't throw toys, or why we don't yell and scream...even for fun.

But I had some friends over today for a few minutes, and of course when I am talking to someone else, he thinks it's a free-for-all and that No rules apply until he has my attention. He begged for tv, food or anything he could think of to pull me away, but I calmly told him to wait until my friends left and then I could help him. Of course, asking a 4 year old to wait for anything is almost impossible, and he continued to nag me while I tried to quickly relay any important information to my friends before they left.

Finally, as they are leaving out the door, Ben decides to walk up to my friend and spit on her and then runs away. Charming little chap eh? As soon as they leave, I remind myself about patience (and let's not forget long suffering here) as I call Ben back downstairs to talk to him about what just happened. I calmly reminded him the rules and the consequences of what happens when we don't follow the rules. He then gives me attitude and tells me I'm a bully and that he doesn't like the rules and then spits on me. Where did my little sweet Ben go lately? I thought the terrible twos were supposed to be over once you learned how to talk out your feelings? I guess not.

So i sent him to his room and told him kindly that he is in timeout for one hour or until I come to get him. I close the door, and then he just continues to talk about how horrible I am for the next five minutes.

Okay, So this is probably more of a journal entry that I should have made in my personal journal, but reality check is that life is not always sun and roses, and sometimes we have to suffer through the rain clouds too. It makes me a little worried about adding more kids to the picture and even more worried about when he becomes a teenager! Yikes! John and I have yet to figure out where all this pent up frustration and attitude is coming from, and every thing we have tried doesn't seem to phase him. Anyone have input or ideas that work in your home?