Bubbling stress

Work has been stressful lately. I don’t want to go into any detail at all here but there are several issues bombarding me and it’s wearing me out.

I know the kids don’t understand at all, but they are adding to the stress when I get home. Sometimes they are a bit “challenging” with the constant escalating skirmishes between a brother and his sisters. There is only so much yelling at each other I can stand and only so much time out and grounding that seems effective.

I worry about them. They’ve had hard lives and things are way better for them now they used to be — not having to live in fear must be nice for them — but they need to work harder to be nice. Julie and I hear about how perfect they are at school, when they’re with relatives and at church. Our little angels with tarnished halos (and sometimes the horns knock the halo off).

Right now, Meg broke a rule and was practicing her tumbling in the living room around the glass table and HDTV so I banished her from the room for a while. Now, she is “playing” video games with her brother. Playing means yelling at him to stop it (doing crazy things like winning) and yelling at him for picking such and such game and yelling at him for “not being fair.”

He’s in there right now trying to help her. “Let me clear the way,” he said. “I don’t want you to clear the way,” she said.

Maybe one day they won’t act like they hate each other. I know deep down they love each other because they are so protective of one another, but it’s rare that the love shines through when they’ve been in the same room together for more than 60 seconds.

One day they’ll grow up and we’ll all look back on this and laugh. Right?