Magic Potion Hug

I admit it- I need more patience with my kids. It is something I am focusing on. Some days are better than others though. Yesterday I came home from work right when the kids got home from school. When we collide like that it can be overwhelming. The kids immediatley ask me for snacks or to play with a friend or to play on the computer before I've even put my purse down and hung up my coat. There are morning messes here and there that were put aside until after work and I usually have to pee really bad because I've forgotten to take a break at work. I've eaten a small snack on the way home in the car as lunch and I'm hungry and impatient. Sometimes the dog has knocked over the trash while I was gone and made a mess in the kitchen.

So here I am, feeling like all I need is a few minutes to get my head on straight when all the "play with a friend" requests start coming. I said sternly to Lou that today was not a friend day and that I have to run a few errands and could not have a friend over, and no, I am not going to call a friend to see if she could go over there. Lou was instantaneously upset with my impatient answer. She threw herself into sobs.

Well- that doesn't work too well with me. She landed herself in her room to cry alone. I am feeling irritated with her, but also with my short fuse. A little bit later she is still upset and sniffling but she gets to come out of her room...but only to start crying again. She asks if she can have some medicine to feel better because she's making herself cough with her crying. I'm again a little irritated because lately she and Little D have both been requesting medicine (tylenol) all the time for stomach aches, head aches and leg aches and made-up aches. I don't want to give it to her because for one, it won't help, and for two, I don't want my kids to think that they need medicine for everything. I say to her that if I gave her a piece of candy and called it a "magic pill" it would probably work just as well as the medicine. I'm throwing words like "placebo" out at a 6 year old. I point to some cheese that is out on the counter (for cheese and crackers) and tell her that if I gave it to her and called it a "magic potion" it would probably work just as well as the tylenol. I'm being a little snotty here. I tell her that tylenol won't help her feel better, she just needs to get in control of her emotions and stop throwing a fit. She looks up at me with big watery eyes and says (and it just about broke my heart and it made me feel like the worst mom) "Is there a magic potion hug?" A magic potion hug would help her feel better she says. So I give her one and then another magic potion hug.

Then we go on errands and I get her a donut...

...because guilt rules my life.