Do you ever feel as if your child is in a constant state of punishment?

I was texting back and forth with a mama who is having liar-liar pants on fire at her house.  Her child was ill prepared for homework and so forth.

Gee golly, haven't we played that song here at our house?

Just this morning when getting ready to walk out the door, K says, "Oh, look!  I have a reading paper that I forgot to do!"  She was very sing songy in her voice and I was not so sing songy.  I turned on the mama yell, which I don't like to do but resorted to because I WAS SO FRUSTRATED!  It was a full page of words (probably 10-12) that needed looked up in a dictionary.  I knew that there was not enough time to look them up in a traditional dictionary, so I took her to my bedroom, pulled the words up in the online Webster's and had her fill the spaces in.  Yes, I wanted to send her to school ill-prepared.  Yes, I did want her to sink on it.  The only saving grace was that the teacher forgot to write it down for the assignment books.  It took her an additional 20 minutes and where she had planned on eating breakfast at school, the first bell rang while she was walking down the sidewalk.  I asked the cafeteria lady if she had breakfast and she said that she hadn't stopped in for any.

Super.  She went without food this morning, but it was a choice.

The child strings her school work out all over the table and her desk.  I check over everything in the morning, make certain lines and books are signed and shove it all into the backpack so that she knows I've already trouped through.

She'll be going without TV for the weekend.  She is spending one night over at her grandparents and she'll have to tell them why she isn't allowed to watch TV.  She had to explain to my MIL why she had to write 3 sentences 140 times for her lying.  She's gone without TV for her lack of organization of school work, but never did she have an assignment that hung over until we were getting ready to walk out.

I'm frustrated.  I know that the kids are frustrated because of the teachers being frustrated about all of the changes to the changes to the changes in education.  Everything is up in the air and our air is far too cold for them to go out to enjoy because we get a snowstorm every other day.

I feel like a mom who only punishes.  UGH!

In like a lion . . . with blizzard-like conditions.

Winter Storm Watch

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
407 AM EDT TUE MAR 11 2014

.LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE THROUGH THE LOWER OHIO VALLEY LATE TUESDAY
NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY. RAIN WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA AHEAD OF THE
LOW TUESDAY NIGHT. THE RAIN WILL CHANGE TO SNOW BY SUNRISE ACROSS
NORTHWEST OHIO AND SPREAD EASTWARD ON WEDNESDAY AS COLDER AIR
MOVES IN BEHIND THE LOW. A PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN IS ALSO
POSSIBLE BEFORE CHANGING TO ALL SNOW. BASED ON THE CURRENT TRACK
OF THE STORM...SNOWFALL SHOULD BE HIGHEST ACROSS NORTHERN OHIO
INTO NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA WITH DECREASING AMOUNTS FURTHER SOUTH.
A GLAZE OF ICE HOWEVER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE.

MEDINA-SUMMIT-PORTAGE-TRUMBULL-RICHLAND-ASHLAND-WAYNE-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...MEDINA...AKRON...RAVENNA...WARREN...
MANSFIELD...ASHLAND...WOOSTER
407 AM EDT TUE MAR 11 2014

...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING
THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT...

* ACCUMULATIONS...3 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW ALONG WITH A GLAZE OF ICE.

* TIMING...RAIN WILL OCCUR MUCH OF TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY
  MORNING. THE RAIN WILL CHANGE TO SNOW BY LATE MORNING AND
  CONTINUE THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. AS THE RAIN TRANSITIONS TO SNOW
  THERE COULD BE A PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN. THE HEAVIEST SNOW
  SHOULD OCCUR WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING COMMUTE. THE
  SNOW WILL SLOWLY TAPER OFF OVERNIGHT BUT THERE MAY BE SOME LAKE
  EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS THAT PERSIST INTO THURSDAY MORNING.

* WINDS...NORTH 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH POSSIBLE.

* IMPACTS...ACCUMULATING SNOW ALONG WITH A GLAZE OF ICE WILL
  SLOW TRAVEL ACROSS THE REGION AND MAKE ANY UNTREATED SURFACES
  SLICK.

Here we go again.  It could be way worse, but at mid-March, I've been clearing beds and planting snap peas.  There is none of that right now.  :(

I don't know why blogger doesn't like the NWS report, so I apologize for the splits in words.  I tried to fix it and I give up.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

I talked about my child and lying lately.  Oh, it isn't me lying.  It is K.

Hubs asked her to clean her bedroom yesterday.  I wasn't aware and since the cat roams upstairs, she had her door shut.  He came home, checked the room and informed her that she hadn't cleaned.  "I did a little."  Perhaps she did, but she didn't get it done as asked.  Okay, no TV until it is complete.

Fast forward to today.  We all went to church.  K and I stayed behind for the all-you-can-eat taco bar put on by the youth as a fundraiser.  (I'm still full.)  We got home and K was to get to cleaning her room.  She piddled around in there for a few and announced that she was done.  Hubs informed her otherwise.  Rinse and repeat a few times.  Finally when the room was possibly doable, Hubs asked about sweeping.

"I did sweep."

"Really?"

"Yes."

I'm sitting and taking the conversation in.

"But I didn't hear the sweeper."

"Oh, I swept with my hands."

"No, K.  You have to sweep with the sweeper."

10 minutes goes by.  She announces that she was done.

"You swept with the sweeper?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Funny, because I didn't hear it."

"Oh, I, um, swept with the little sweeper."

I couldn't take it anymore.

"This sweeper?"

"Yes!"

I flick the switch and it is dead.  It is not working.  It is cordless and dead, dead.  I had been sitting in the living room folding laundry and knew she hadn't taken it anyhow.

"Oh, well, maybe. I forget."

Really?

I gave her 100 times to write.  She lied repeatedly and each time got another sentence.

"When I lie, I know it is wrong.  Lying gives me a double punishment.  I know when I am lying and God does, too."

She has given us a hard time.  She has had a fit.  She even lied again about leaving her room and going to complain to her dad about the writing.  She lied when I asked if she left her room.  "No."  "Really, but I heard you."

So for now, she is writing 130 times.  She keeps begging for us to go on a walk.  We would go, but since she's only on 40 and it has been hours, I don't see it happening for a long time.

Wish me well.  It's wearing both of us out.  Even Hubs said to me that he feels bad because it seems like she is always punished.  We ask simple things of her.  We ask her to be honest, to do her homework and turn it in when due, to keep a clean room and to do a few chores around the house.  We don't run a child work camp and it isn't like the child can't breathe right.  Something has to break, right?