Temper Tantrum #1

A couple of days ago I was able to bear witness to something unforeseen in my household...a full blown, arms flailing, foot-stomping, screaming, crying, convulsing temper tantrum and the culprit was not who I would have anticipated. It was actually Antonio.

Now let me provide a little background that led up to this. Firstly Antonio and Angelo had been waking up awfully early the previous few days (we're talking 6:15-6:30) and because it is Summer we allow the kids to stay up later than normal, frankly because they just won't go to sleep when the sun is up. Secondly they haven't been able to play outside as much as we would like because of the heat so they aren't burning off all the extra energy I wish I had. Lastly these kids have been struggling to pick up their toys lately, however when we get on to them about it they reluctantly pick up with a little (or a lot) of help from Mommy and Daddy.

Well imagine our surprise when we asked the kids to pick up and ten minutes later they came downstairs and proclaimed that they had in fact picked up all by themselves which I promptly verified to be true. I was amazed at the tidiness. Well come to find out the next day that the toys hadn't been "put away" so much as they had been shoved under the couch and out of sight. That did not make Mommy happy. So Mommy bravely called downstairs for a trash bag and in go the toys: not to the landfill, but to the shed (she has quite a flair for the dramatic when it comes to these things). To make matters worse it was already a mess and Antonio was refusing to assist in the cleanup. So Mommy asked him again, and again to help, but to no avail. Once she exceeded her self-imposed threshold of asking no more than three times she told Antonio to change into PJs, brush his teeth and go to bed. Our neighbors could have probably heard the screaming.

From his open/slammed shut/open again door came abundant wails of unfairness, fits of fist-clenching anger, remorseful "give me another chance"s, and finally ultimatums about what he would or would not do if we relented the likes of which I have never seen or heard. As much as it broke my heart to leave him in his room I did not want to set a precedent of allowing a temper tantrum to dissuade me from enforcing the consequences of the aforementioned actions. In fact had he not thrown the tantrum we would have been much more likely to let him off the hook, but after the tantrum started you could forget about it.

The next morning Antonio was his usual chipper self and he promised that it wouldn't happen again. Thanks to our stoic adherence to our parental duties I believe him.

For the record Angelo was guilty of the tiniest bit of schadenfreude as he made merry in the glow of his brother's punishment, but not for too long. He was in rare form himself for the remainder of the evening and I think he enjoyed staying up late with Daddy. Let's hope he will learn by example of what not to do.

So unfortunately I can finally join the ranks of parents who can say that they have truly experienced the full force of a temper tantrum. I am actually amazed that it took nearly 6 years of parenthood before I saw my first, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it won't be the last.