Karma's a bitch.

So, here's the deal.

Hubby and I are apparently raising the spawn of Satan.

And here's why that's all about karma.

When Hubby and I were first dating, he met my then 2 year old niece. She was the first child in the family for a pretty long stretch, and she was rather remarkably spoiled. And just a few months prior to Hubby meeting her, her baby sister was born, causing all sorts of trouble for my sister. After an afternoon with her, Hubby dubs her the spawn of Satan. She was a pretty good piece of work at that age, but most kids I know are.

Fast forward 10 years, and Hubby and I have two little spawns of our own. One, the boy, is 5. He is the devil himself.

He's always been a bit of trouble - pretty much from day one, he had a strong personality. Now, he has a strong body to support it, and has taken to throwing punches when he's angry. Or kicking. Particularly about the head.

I've spent pretty much the last two weeks in the Principal's office with him. I'm losing what little patience I normally have here.

The annoying thing is the boy *knows the difference*. In the past, he would occasionally act out, but he was a toddler, he didn't know better. I could pretty easily distract him away from bad behaviour, or talk it through with him.

Not anymore.

So basically, I'm feeling like a complete failure as a parent. And I'm getting frustrated with Hubby for not being perfectly consistent too. Not that I'm overly consistent, but no one said I was acting rationally here.

And add to that the perfect storm of being an Irish-Canadian catholic mother, and I feel like it's all my fault. It's the trifecta of guilt.

So here's the plan - as we try a new behavioural modification system on both kids (the girl is 19 months, so a little young, but we're going to see if we can improve her screaming at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason thing), I'm going to share here. And vent. There will likely be a lot of venting. One of the tenants of the plan is to not let the kids see that they are causing you to lose your cool. That should be fun. Now all I have to do is get Hubby to also follow it! And lord knows, neither Hubby nor I are known for our lack of temper.

Tune in tomorrow to have the new plan explained in some sort of reasonable manner. It's supposed to be remarkable simple, and reportedly very effective, so long as it is consistently implemented.

The Mommy.