# Chateau de la Tobler

## Saturday, December 13, 2008

### Fair Warning

I feel it only fair to warn everyone in my family about a very serious issue that has the possibility of affecting each and every one of you. That very serious issue is the severely annoying whining of my oldest daughter. Heather is trying every ounce of patience I posses as well as all that I beg the lord to bless me with.
Case in point. Yesterday, Benjamin had a scout camp out. Since he wasn't going to be around, Heather begged and received permission to have a friend spend the night. So did Jacob. Heather's friend, Angel, ended up not being able to come without any real explanation why. Jacob's friend did come. Heather screamed, cried, sat in the corner and rocked, and generally was very annoying for about two and a half hours. Every time she saw Jacob's friend she renewed her fits because, "It makes me sooooooooooo sad to see his friend. Angel must not be my friend. I guess I won't be her friend anymore. If she was really my friend, she would have come over. She hates me! I just know that she does! She doesn't want to be around me anymore!" And on, and on, and on!
I tried to ignore her. I tried to explain to her that Angel does still like her, that sometimes the answer is just no. I tried to explain that her parents hadn't met me and that could very easily be the reason Angel couldn't come over. I tried to ignore her again. Finally, I told her that if she still wanted to do this, she needed to do it upstairs in her room where she wouldn't bug anyone else.
The good news, after she calms down, she morphs back into my sweet little girl who played with her younger brother and his friend and even eventually invited them to sleep on the floor of her room because I wouldn't let them sleep downstairs on the couch.
Any advice or tricks in dealing with all this would be greatly appreciated!
PS. She does this on average once a day. At least she doesn't do it in school anymore. Her teachers have told me that she has really improved in the attitude department since she got her own room. So that's at least something!

<< Home