Ugggghhhhhh…. The dreaded follow through.

We’ve all been there: you’re so mad that you want to say, or possibly yell, something to really get their attention… And you throw out a low blow. You say something that you know is going to get a reaction.

“No tv for a week!”

“You’re grounded for a month!”

“No dessert tonight!”

Or, in my case…

“That’s it! We are not going to see the Trolls movie tomorrow!”

As soon as I say it, I want to take it back. I can tell by the look on my husband’s face that he wants me to take it back too. We were both looking forward to the Sunday afternoon outing.

But now we can kiss the movie goodbye because, in a heated moment, I took it away and we have to (ugggghhhhhh) follow through.

I hate it when I do this!

I showed off. I flexed my parental muscles. I wielded my power. And now I have to follow through. (Why is parenting so hard???)

The next day, Lucy and Sam were on their best behaviour. And I thought, just for a minute, that maybe we could still go to the movies… I started to waver…

But no. You can’t waver. You have to stay strong. You have to stand behind the punishment you doled out. You have to (uggghhhhhh) follow through.

So we didn’t go to the movie. Instead, Lucy and Sam cleaned up all the toys under their beds. And they organized all their toys in the spare room. And they cleaned up their mess in the living room.

I flexed my parental muscles. I wielded my power. And my husband, the good man that he is, backed me up.

We followed through.

Oh yes, we followed through good.

(And the next weekend, after a week of much better behavior, we finally got to see Trolls!)