This morning, Little Miss threw her version of a tantrum. At almost 8 years old, I see it coming. She doesn’t want to take a vitamin, and her reaction is to start crying. My mom too often coddles her and makes everything go away, so Little Miss tries this bit of manipulation on me… but only when she’s overtired. In general, she knows I don’t play that game.
So when I saw the tears start, I sighed.
Little Miss, I explained. Why are you crying?
I. Don’t. Know, she managed to hiccup out – another clear sign that my baby girl is overtired.
Peanut, you only cry like this when you’re super tired. Did you wake up really early this morning? I asked, trying to figure out where this came from. I’d already made the mistake of overscheduling Monday and getting her so tired I had to wake her up Tuesday, but then we’d had a quieter day and an early bedtime.
Noooooooo, was all I could get out of her.
Peanut, I explained gently, If you’re crying like this, that means you’re tired. You can’t go to summer school like this. And if you’re this tired, I can’t send you over to Carol’s house to play this afternoon before gymnastics either. It really isn’t a good idea for anyone. Can you pull yourself together and show me that this is just a fluke?
The last thing I want to do is cancel a playdate. I hate making commitments and then not keeping them for one reason or another. It ends up being a punishment for me, too, since I have an unhappy child at home with me instead of some alone time to get things done. And if it’s a birthday party or a playdate, it punishes the child who was looking forward to having some time with my child. I’ll do it, however, when it’s necessary.
If my child is overtired or out of control, the last thing I want to do is make it worse by sending them into another situation that will only exacerbate the tiredness or the poor behavior. And so I’ve made the threats before. If you don’t stop X, I’m going to have to call Y and tell them you can’t come. If this is how you’re deciding to behave today, we won’t be able to Y.
In this instance, Little Miss kept sobbing. I carried her upstairs and laid her on her bed. Peanut, I can tell that you’re tired, and I bet you can feel it, too. I’m not going to send you to summer school right now. You’re going to miss your first class. Sleep now, and I’ll check on you later. If you can sleep and get rested, I’ll take you to your second class and then we can see if you’re too tired to do a playdate and then gymnastics or whether we think you can handle it. But right now, you need to sleep. Do you want your sound machine on?
And through the sobs, I saw her nod. She understands at least. She’s figuring out that when she’s overemotional, she does feel better after taking a step back or sleeping. And so I tiptoed out of her room, downstairs to text Carol’s mom to give her the heads up that Little Miss may not be able to join them today and explaining why.
When I checked on Little Miss ten minutes later, I found this.
I can only hope that when she wakes up, she’s renewed and refreshed. Because I don’t make empty threats. It’s not good for any of us when I say one thing and don’t follow through. I choose my consequences carefully, and they aren’t threats. They’re explanations of the consequences and what happens because we’ve overscheduled ourselves or we can’t follow instructions.
But I’m still hoping that she can have her playdate later today. How do you handle it when your children go off the deep end?
My name is Michelle, and I have two wee ones, Mister Man who is 9 and Little Miss who is my 7 year old daughter. We live in the suburbs of Chicago where I am technically a SAHM, though staying at home doesn't seem to be in the job description! 
