A terrible confession

To be honest I hate confessing that I am a terrible mom. I always vowed I wouldn't be that mom who had the screaming child and the child that looked like an orphan all the time, but I am more than I want to be.

As you noticed I just posted a blog about Abby and to be honest I struggled with what to say. She is a funny girl, but she is going through such a difficult time I struggled to think of nice things to say about her. I know there is lots of good things about Abby, but right now they aren't as evident as some other traits that we are struggling with. It was actually really good to focus on her good qualities, but hard for me. I know she is so sweet and I love her very much, but she is being so difficult it is really hard to like her right now.

Last night we started to put our kids to bed around 8 pm, so they could go to bed at a normal hour after our crazy summer hours. But Abby didn't go to bed until after 9 pm. Why . . . because she was throwing a tantrum that would put all tantrums to shame. It started because she didn't want to fold her arms for the prayer, then she tried to yell through the start of Ben's prayer. So we know she knows better so we told her to stop or she would have to sit in the other room. So of course she didn't stop so we put her in time out in the laundry room. Where she proceeded to kick the dryer like she was trying to kill something. So then she had to sit in the kitchen corner for time out. And it took almost 20 minutes to have her sit in time out without trying to escape and run away and throw a fit on the floor.

So finally we finished with time out and proceeded to brush our teeth and go to the bathroom. So then we had a screaming match because she didn't want to go to the bathroom. It was awful. I really just don't know what to do. A few days ago she was in time out four times before 9:30. Then she is not very nice to people. Our cute neighbor girls come over all the time to play with Abby and she will never play. She tells them she is playing by herself or with Grace and Ben. She won't smile at anyone and is very snobby. I am hoping with a new schedule and Ben going to school I can focus more time on Abby, but I don't know if that is the answer. I really am struggling with what to do that would help us all.