When Mommy Took the Games Away

Scary Mommy came out recently. I’m not proud of that, nor am I hoping she comes back…but it’s kind of good she did.

Scary Mommy…you know her. She yells, she curses, she disciplines too severely for a small offense. But if she’d handled the offense correctly in the FIRST place, she’d not have gotten scary!

I literally had had enough, and left my children with their father who needed to get his behind up since it was 10 a.m. on a Sunday. Now, granted, it was my fault I was tired and exhausted and a smidgen hungover because we had a fun awesome time the night before. But I’d had it.

The fighting, hitting, screaming, COMPLAINING, oh.my.word. the complaining. (Yes I realize the irony that I am now, currently, complaining.) It’s summer, I realize, and they are used to constantly being on the go during school. But enough was enough.

After I ran out for my meltdown, (which was, in reality for their safety.) I came back, refreshed. And with a new plan.

They were promptly punished from ALL video game/screen time including TV. Husband and I discussed cracking down on the attitude and the little stuff we let them slide on. It was time to reunite with Agnes…
I’m not going to lie and say it was the easiest week. They still got put in corners, got fussed at, lost other privileges. (Most notably, the elder child lost his new Mario figurines because he decided it’d be awesome fun to dump old BBQ grill dust and muck on his brother’s head…..sigh.)

However, amazing things happened….they played together for one. Not all the time. I’m not delusional to think this is a major life altering time for them. But it was nice to see them be FORCED to come together and work things out because they had no TV or video game as a crutch. For my older son, who has serious social skill issues, this was important. Without that comfort of the games, he was forced to step outside his 32 bit little comfort box and PLAY.

We also discussed being APPRECIATIVE of the things mommy does. We read, repeatedly, the Berenstein Bears book, “Count Your Blessings” that we got from the library. (God bless that Mama Bear, she took the words out of my mouth.)

They were semi misbehaving in the store (not majorly) and an older lady smiled at them and chatted with me. She said, “They’re making memories at this age, you’ll forget the annoying stuff and remember the good stuff.” Ahh, I love moms who’ve been there. They know more than any and all parenting books put together.
So, I hope Scary Mommy stays away for a long time, and I hope I can keep a hold of these lessons I’ve learned this week. We will definitely be limiting screen time, I like my children’s attitudes much better this way.

But I’m still counting down until school starts…..

For some funny laughs and to feel better about your own parenting, check out this blog, Scary Mommy. I did not know this existed before I started calling myself Scary Mommy….but I’m amused I’m not alone.
~~Amy

Cross posted from Real Housewives of NOLA.