Who would have thought that deciding what to do for fun as a family could cause dissension?! Last night, it was my 9 year old son's turn to decide what we would do as a family, and he picked Twister. Yes, there were silent groans from us slack, inactive parents but I pasted on a big smile and said 'wonderful!' However, my 14 year old is nowhere near as tactful and immediately did one of her teenage mood swings. "I hate Twister! Stupid game! Stupid boy! Why do he always have to pick games...etc,etc".
So I had to go into mum mode and warn her to moderate her behaviour and words, and when she progressed to banging pans and kicking things out of the way, I had to move to Sergeant mode. "Toilet" I said and pointed. She stormed into the toilet, muttering and casting enough dirty looks around that I almost had to pull out the mop. However, after 10 minutes, I called her out and she was meek and mild again. Crisis averted. Still didn't want to play Twister but the temper tantrum was over.
Funny thing was, a few minutes later we were all playing the game and laughing our heads off. There's nothing like having someone's bum in your face to make you laugh while swearing deadly consequences if anyone dares break wind! Even my moody 14 year old couldn't help giggling.
That's the thing with teenagers: their moods come and go like flash storms. Interrupt the cycle early and it is quickly over. However, if you don't interfere early enough,you can quickly find yourself battling a tornado. Need parenting advice? Read How to Raise a Child
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In retrospect, I guess there are some lessons to be drawn from this. The first one is, if you intervene early enough in a child's outburts, you can almost always deflect it; and secondly, even when you (and this refers to parents as well as kids) don't feel up to joining in family time, do it anyway -you almost always end up having a blast!
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