I’m just going to say it. There have been times during this quarantine when I wonder if my child will live to see the end of it. Today my daughter made me so angry with her attitude that I wanted to grab her by her cute tween side ponytail and fling her over the balcony. Now before you go calling child services on me, she’s still alive and I’m now in the back of the house cooling off.

Praise God, there haven’t been too many of these encounters yet, considering we’re together 24/7 and trying to homeschool. So, for today, I’m going to tap into the wisdom of our amazing marital counselor. He makes the recommendation to take a break for not just a few minutes, not 10 minutes, but at least 20 minutes. The storm needs to completely pass before trying to resolve issues. If you jump the gun and move in too soon with a follow-up chat, the feelings of pure rage are still bubbling under the surface.

So, I sit here on my bed…waiting. Cooling off. Just know, precious daughter, that your surly attitude will come with consequences. But for now, you sit in your neutral corner, and I will too. God willing, when we try this whole conversation again (about doing schoolwork), it will be a much more civil attempt. One can hope!