It's Been THAT Kind of Week

As I sat in the carpool line to pick Sam up from school today, I prayed that the Lord would bless me with enough patience to make it through the rest of the afternoon. Yes, it has been that kind of week.

As Sam's teacher, Mrs. Paine, opened my car door to put him into his car seat, I heard the tail-end of what sounded like encouragement for him to be good for me for the rest of the day.

"...You need to be good for her. Be a good listener and do what she says, okay?" Mrs. Paine urged Sam.

"Yeah, but I'll try not to have anymore fits today," Sam replied.

Uh oh.

"How was Sam today?" I asked Mrs. Paine, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, not so great. He had a few fits today," she said.

Pretty much par for the week.

Sam has been testing his limits for the past 2 weeks. I guess it's just a 4-year-old thing, but I'm not letting that pass as an excuse for his poor behavior. He knows what buttons to push, and I feel like if he pushes one more button I might fall over the edge. Good thing it's Friday.

Last weekend, Sam told his mom that it's "boring" when I come to stay with him because I don't let him watch TV all day. Yesterday, Sam told Mike that I "ignore" him. Sam immediately turned my way to watch my reaction, started laughing, and yelled, "Hahahaha! I'm just jokin'!"

Not funny.

It's really tough being a Nanny sometimes. Even though Mike and Liz know I take great care of their boys, Sam's mean and very false accusations hurt my feelings this week. I know I'm a good Nanny and I wish Sam would realize how lucky he is to have me around. I know I'm tough on him sometimes, but it's only because I don't want him to stop short of his potential. It's okay to make mistakes and have bad days every now and then, but it's not okay to have a bad attitude because you don't get what you want. It's not okay for me to let him get away with something just because I'm afraid he might call me "mean." Maybe one day he'll understand how much I love him...

Next week is Spring Break at Sam's school. Before I drove away from the carpool line today, Mrs. Paine asked, "You wouldn't happen to get a Spring Break would you, Mrs. Allison?" She smiled. I laughed.

No Spring Break for me...but I do get 2 days to recharge before starting another week with the boys. Next week will be better. It has to be.