Parenting Fail

St. Patrick’s Day weekend used to be going out all day to the local bar, and drinking green beer until our urine turned the same color.  We would hang all day and then sleep in the entire next day.  Now our St. Patty’s Day weekend consists of going to a friend’s house, cooking out, and playing Euchre.  The game plan was to go home relatively early since we had the painter coming early the next day.  Plus the kids had a birthday party in the afternoon so naps probably weren’t going to happen.  Early ended up not being early.

We had to decide when we were at our friends whether we would put the kids down and then have to wake them up when we left.  I hate doing that, and I remember hating when my parents did that.  Our kids got late naps the day before so we just decided to keep them up.  We left at like 11:30, which is way too late for my kids.  They slept in a little bit today, but definitely not enough.  My daughter woke up with the devil in her, but my son seemed fine.  As the day dragged on, I could see them slowing down quickly.  Both of my kids faces light up red as a stop light when they get tired, so it is really easy to see it coming.  They both got a spark of energy on our way to the birthday party so I thought all would be good.  They had to last an hour and a half.

Right when we got there we went to the gym to do some gymnastics fun.  Tiredness hit.  My daughter would not engage at first.  She stood there and refused to join.  When I finally talked her into it, she literally held up the entire line trying to do the activity.  She is stubborn and wasn’t giving up until she got across the balance beam.  The teacher was offering to help and she was refusing.  Finally I had to pull her.  Then my son came in and tried the first set of activities.  I thought again all is good.  Until the second set.  He stood there.  He watched.  He refused to play.  I tried the intimidating parent conversation to no avail.  He was too tired.  He ended up leaving the fun and coming back to put his shoes on.  One checked out.  The other sat in the middle of the mat not moving as the other kids played tag around her.  Two checked out.  Thanks to some fruit and a couple of sweets, they got a quick boost of energy at the tail end of the party.  The party was fun, they were not.

It is hard for me to get upset with them about not engaging at the party when it was our fault that they were so tired.  Next time I will make sure they get some better sleep before they have to go to a party.  Oops.  Parenting fail at its finest.