“I hate my hat.”
“I think it’s nice.”
“I hate my hat!”
“You’ve said that twice.”
“I hate my hat!”
“Now that’s the third.”
“I hate my hat!”
“I hate that word!”
“What word is that?”
“The word you said.”
“You mean my hat?”
“No, not your hat. Your hat is great. I like your hat. It’s ‘hate’ I hate.”
– I hate my hat by Mary Ann Hoberman
Ellie is going through a dramatic patch. Any time she is corrected or disciplined or redirected, she bursts into tears and makes a beeline for her room while wailing,
“Mom (or Daddy or Tessie or Max or Monday –whoever) HATES me!”
She has even gone so far as to turn it around a few times.
“I hate you!” she shrieks. This really gets me riled up, and makes me wonder where we went wrong. Luckily, each time she utters this curse I’ve been able to answer with, “Nice try. I LOVE you.” it seems to turn off the power right quick, thank goodness.
The whole thing has been wearing me out. I mentioned to Jac how much I hated her using that word and he simply said,
“Hmmmm. I wonder where she gets it.”
Right.
I say it often I guess. More often then I imagined. I’ve been trying to clean up my language in general but really focusing on eradicating the H word. I think it might be killing me. So I’m just going to binge for a moment and get out the last little bit of my disdain. I’ll offset it with what I love just to give some balance. After all, I am realizing how exhausting hatred can be.
-I love it when my kiddos buy me things that they love, assuming I will like it, too, such as the Juicy Fruit gum Tess gifted me. I hate swallowing gum. I almost barfed today. Ugh.
– I love it when I can get the Saran Wrap to work the right way on the first try. It makes me feel like an adult. I hate it when I get it so tangled and twisted that I have to start all over.
– I love the smell and sight of peonies blooming – it’s that season! I love that The kids are just as excited about the flowers as I am and that Tess is calling them “Pannies” this year. I hate the allergies that have awakened with force.
– I love hearing the kids giggle and visit late into the night. I hate how grumpy they are in the morning from too little sleep.
– I love falling asleep to the sound of rain. I hate that that has only happened once so far this year.
– I love that silly Ellie kid. I hate that times are so tough for her right now. Pray for us both, will you? I’d hate to see it come to blows . . .
