Personal Storm System

Perhaps the hurricane has affected me, because this morning I created my own personal storm system.  First the 5 year old did not want to get up. She complained it was “snuffy” and I had to turn on the air. Then she sluggishly half dressed and half let herself be dressed. Then I braced myself to tackle the 3 year old, who had woken several times during the night and finally fallen into a troubled sleep on the sofa. She steadfastly refused to wake up or to let me dress her, or even to be touched. I then began the threat dance, “Well, we’ll just have to leave without you then.”  “Mommmy!” Further refusals to dress, accompanied by kicking. Another threat to leave (Who do I think I’m fooling? I can hardly leave the 3 year old to fend for herself).  Finally, glaring in fury at me, she lets her sister dress her. Time is ticking away and I have visions of the KinderCare bus leaving without the 5 year old. Eventually we get to the car. “Mommy—I forgot my glasses!”  I shout at 5 year old to run get her glasses. By now the inner storm clouds are dark indeed. We are driving off. “Oh—I forgot my backpack.” Cloudburst. Now, screaming in fury at a 5 year old who has forgotten her backpack is a lesson in the broken nature of humanity if ever there was one.  She will not be expelled for want of a backpack. The world will not come to a screeching halt. Her moral character is not doomed because she couldn’t remember to grab her pack as we left.  My moral character, on the other hands, needs some work.