Temper, Temper

Try not to be fooled by the darling face you see displayed here. This child is giving her mother a run for her money!

She informed me the other day that, I quote, "I have this thing you might have heard of, it's called a temper."

Let me tell you how shocked I was by her statement. About as shocked as I was to hear that my checking account is empty. (Translation: not shocked at all.)

She must have forgotten that I was there when she was born. She was torn from my body, screaming mad, and has been mad about something ever since. (Slight exaggeration... not about the birth, about the constant anger.)

She comes by it naturally. I also had one of those "tempers" as a child. This being a public forum, I'll keep mum on her father's temper. (Love you babe!)

Which is why when she came to me a week or so ago with a problem that is going on at school, my advice was this: "If that girl does that to you again, you have my permission to punch her. If the principal or your teacher have a problem with that, they can call me."

(To myself I thought, and if they have a problem with it, I'll probably punch THEM!)

In hind-sight, maybe not my best advice. Something about turning the other check and such. But I can only keep my own temper in check to a certain level. After all, I am the person who got into a fist fight once when someone threw a ball and hit my brother in the face.

Part of me loves that at 7 years-old, Ms. Els is aware of her temper. She's learning about herself. It's cool. But, apparently I have to help her learn to control said temper. That's part of growing up.

Now, if I could just find her a good role model....