Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Pushing Buttons

Is 13 a magic number? Because the past months since Sadie turned 13 she has pushed my buttons several times a week. Whenever she gets in trouble for something, and sometimes when she doesn't, she just begins pushing my buttons, saying everything she can think of. She attempts to escalate conversations even when I am resisting taking the bait.

When I have taken all I can take, I have to remove her from the situation so that I don't do and say things I will regret. I have some self control, but I know where my limit is. I just had to physically remove her from my office because she would not leave and she fought back, unusual for her. She then proceeded to put a hole in my office door, also unusual for her.

Since she frequently states "Salinda is on my side", dragging her sister into everything, I am reluctant to be too excited about Salinda's return when it comes to Sadie. I know it is going to be hard enough for Salinda without Sadie constantly dragging her into things. The two of them gang up on me and join together in pushing my buttons.

I'm sure some of the opposition is typical teenage stuff, but some of what she is acting on is her anxiety about Salinda's return and John's inability to come home for Christmas.

But she'll have to pay to have the door replaced. And she's not going to like that.

1 comment:

Kathyb1960 said...

Oh yes! 13 is THE magic number!

My mother always said we went to bed as sweet 12 year olds, and woke up as 13 year olds w/ an attitude!

Like you said before, at least you only have 2 girls! There were 3 girls in our family! We all survived and now we are all in our 40's. Even my niece got through it...she is 20 now.

Claudia, just wondering...when you come to Texas, do you ever come out to West Texas? You can e-mail me and I'll let you know WHERE in West Texas I'm talking about!