Aargh

Lilia has a cold, doesn’t feel too well and is off her normal sleeping and eating patterns, and is driving us crazy. It’s as if her normal behaviors have been focused into a beam of a thousand “I wants.” And when Lilia’s sick, even the tiny amount of patience she normally possesses evaporates, so that she can’t wait even a few seconds for anything and she stands in the kitchen repeating “I want Nutella! I want Nutella! I want Nutella! I want Nutella! . . . . “ at the top of her voice, until the next thing comes: “I want to watch Lilia on the TV! I want to watch Lilia on the TV! I want to watch Lilia on the TV! . . . “ and of course when the demands aren’t met, as they frequently aren’t for reasons of practicality, health or because-I’m-Mama-and-I-said-no, we then have a tantrum on our hands with the scream volume turned up to maximum.

Sigh.

Thorsten has taken her to the public library. He called on the way on his cell phone, and I could hear her shrieking in the background. “She’s driving terribly on her Laufrad and she won’t stop howling. Everybody on the street is looking at me.” I asked if he was going to turn around and come home. “No,” he said, resigned. “We’ll be back in an hour.”

God bless him.

I recently read an interview with the mother of another demanding daughter. She said, “I sometimes wonder whether she suffers under the intensity of her personality.” I wonder that too. And I wonder how I can keep my temper with her, especially during times like these (I am supposed to be the adult after all, although sometimes I feel far from it). More importantly, I wonder how I can teach her to control both her desires and her temper herself.

Sigh.