Mothers Day
The greater part of today adhered to the hopeful script very well indeed. I fell out of bed early, deflected the children for a couple of hours, provided a cup of tea to the upstairs bedroom, made breakfasts, washed up, tidied up, and generally ran in all directions attempting to make everybody happy.
It seemed to work. W even liked the gift the children chose for her. Our youngest's attempts at writing might even have garnered a wibbly lip moment in bed this morning.
Rather predictably of late, all my attempts flew straight into a hole in the ground as the clock approached our eldest's bedtime. Not being allowed to turn the TV on in the lounge rapidly escalated into answering back, shouting, and then a sit down protest on the stairs. After steadily escalating threats, she eventually exploded and stamped to her room, screaming unintelligable rants at us.
I discovered W in the lounge crying, and I snapped.
Threats were quietly made in bedrooms. Eldest daughter was grounded for the week ahead. If said behaviour returns, her life is going to become pretty damn miserable, pretty damn quickly.
Let's hope the next few days remain a little more calm, and give everybody a chance to turn the DEFCON level down a bit.