Love and Logic: My Daughter Returned the Empathy

I try to be empathetic with my daughter, but sometimes I do slip into angry mom.

Today my daughter decided to not take a nap for the third day in a row. My husband and I are in the process of remodeling our master bedroom and bathroom. Nap time is a chance for me to get some work done. After a failed attempt to get her back to bed, I allowed her into my room to watch me paint.

As I am pulling trim off the walls with a crowbar and laying the trim, full of nails, on the ground, my daughter is jumping around on my bed and bouncing off the walls, literally. Then I start to feel myself heat up. I should have just taken a deep breath, stopped remodeling, and went downstairs with Lauren to play. Instead, I yelled, "Lauren! You should be taking a nap!  Stop jumping around, you are going to step on a nail and then we will have to go to the doctor!!"

I hear Lauren stop and say, "Oh, you're angry momma." Then she ran over to me and said, "Momma, can I give you a hug so you can be happy?"

My heart melted. I was no longer angry. I also stopped pulling trim off the walls, gave Lauren a big hug and went downstairs with my daughter to play.