Yesterday I was at Samantha's school helping sort some items from a recent event I assisted with. As I was sorting and listening to the other ladies I could hear their burn out. They began to speculate on who would run the event next year, and who would take over the parent organization. They went on to discuss how much work was involved in each of those and that it's too much for one person to take on both. One lady chuckled a bit while stating how she loved to tell people "No" because she was doing this instead. It was that statement that lead to this post today.

This Halloween weekend I realized I have been failing my daughter... BIG TIME!

It first became obvious after Samantha sat in mustard in her brand new, custom made, My Little Pony "pinkie pie" costume. She hadn't even made it to trick-or-treating and had already stained it, with mustard all over her face, on her sleeve, and on one of the neighbor kid's coats. Grrrrrrrr! She is extremely messy.

In a recent blog post I talk about the importance of tracking. It is such a powerful tool and the data you glean from it is invaluable. As part our our initial tracking we tracked our responses each time Samantha had an outburst. Whether it was the removal of a consequence, yelling back, doing nothing, talking calming, or giving a spanking. Each week we would try out a different technique to see what would happen. Any guesses as to which one worked best?

So yesterday Samantha & I were sitting at the table working on her school work, when she asks, "Mom will Scooter die when we move?"

I paused and look long & hard into those big blue eyes. My heart sank a bit. It's such a heavy topic for a child. I gathered my thoughts for a moment and I said, "Yes, honey. At some point he will no longer be with us."

She thought for a moment. Then asked (and I knew it was coming) "What about you and Daddy."

So today munchkin will spend 1/2 day of observation at her potential new school. If all goes well, I expect an acceptance letter. If not...well, honestly, I do not currently have a plan B. I am a big ball of stress. I have prepared for the worst, I am going to hope for the best, and anything in between is probably fine.