Oh The Joys of Motherhood

I remember when I was younger and my mother had to discipline me. She would say "believe me, this hurts me just as much as it hurts you." Those words are so true!. Now, I am not a big punishment giver - I would rather my children obey out of fear of God.. not fear of me! But today, I did - I had to. It has been building for a couple days - Zack has been challenging decisions I make i.e. "why do I have to get up so early, why can't I stay up later at night?" Now, I don't mind him asking those questions, I don't even mind answering those questions, it's the whining that immediately follows the explanations that bothers me. So today, he had a basketball game at 6:00 and after school he came into my room and asked to go home with his friend until it was time for the game. The problem was.. his friend doesn't go home - he goes to daycare. I tried to explain to Zack that you can't just "show up" at a daycare when you are not registered there... that they wouldn't know who he was.. what he was doing there...**insert whining**.. then I told him that we were going to the mall before the game to get a pretzel instead (which he really loves doing)**insert more whining** Finally, I let the words slip from my mouth.. "fine, then we won't go to your game at all.. we are going straight home." **Insert 15 minutes of pathetic wailing, crying, pleading, and begging for a second chance. Followed by some hugs and kisses to try to sweeten me up** Sorry kid.. not working. I felt absolutely miserable and downight sad but could not give in or my word will not mean anything to him anymore. He has to learn that I mean what I say. So, here we are at home and not at his game tonight...I am feeling awful...he has already gotten over it.