Thursday is the most hellish day of the week. It’s ballet day. And if I didn’t truly believe that children need activities to keep them out of trouble, build self esteem, and gain physical exercise, grace, or whatever, I would drop it.
DD7 complains incessantly. Not about ballet, which she loves again, now that the child who was bothering her in class is not attending. She just complains, about homework, which generally takes ten minutes of actual work and twenty minutes of complaining, about her sister, being bored, doing any task, and pretty much anything that she can articulate into a sentence.
Though annoying, the complaining is tolerable, or ignorable, except on Thursday. Then, the three of us are trapped in a van for the round trip, tired and hungry. Even the snack creates drama.
DD1 dislikes it when I (or anyone) is doing something that does not involve her. On Thursday, the exclusionary tasks make up a long list. She throws regular tantrums while I wash dishes, prep everything for dinner, do emergency laundry which inevitably happens, pack snacks and run everything to the car. Sometimes she naps. On Thursday, not so much. It could be a form of protest.
Then we get into the van and head for the car rider line.
Today DD7 told us about her friend not being polite, then bursting into tears. DD7 clarified that yes, the person being mean was the one who cried. She didn’t understand why either. Immediately, DD1 grabbed the snack bag. Then she threw a cracker at her sister. Then all of the crackers, one after another. Instead of taking the bag back, DD7 complained loudly, in an indignant tone.
I couldn’t stand the drama a moment longer, so I said, “There, now she’s run out of crackers. ”
DD1 then threw everything else she could reach – sip cup, pacifier, a toy, and a brush.
I was unable to find sympathy in my heart for DD7, who declined to sit a row away from DD1, because she didn’t want to be bothered to move her booster seat. Moving the booster seat involves simply picking it up, and carrying it back one row. It takes seconds. So, she was in no way ambushed by DD1, and had actually begun to complain prior to the cracker attack.
Gaah!
DD7 says she would like to also do gymnastics, karate, and pretty much any activity that a friend is doing or she hears about on the radio. I have informed her that unless she plans to be say, an entirely different person, one not prone to injury or getting sensory overload when more than one afternoon per week is scheduled, she can forget about it. For years I told her she could do something instead of ballet and she said no. Now she just has far too good a time, has too many friends in class, and is too good to quit on a whim. I have seen what it looks like when she genuinely isn’t interested in something – this isn’t it.
