The gift of cool may be backfiring

I hate to do back-to-back posts about the same thing but this needs to be addressed.

This is how Lauren spends about 1/3 of her days now.

She's just a melty, sobby mess.  She wants a popsicle at 7:15am, she wants to chew gum like Drew, she doesn't want me to put the sharp knives away when emptying the dishwasher because she wants to do it, she doesn't want me to brush my hair, she wants to tie my shoes for me, and on and on and on. 

This is not my first rodeo.  I'm not really at a loss or exhausted or fed up.  Yet.  But it is getting kind of old.  But get this:  Chris said this morning, "Why don't you and Lauren run to the bank and Old Navy and then we'll pick up the kids together and go to Costco after school - all of us."  I said, "Taking Lauren to the bank and Old Navy ain't what it used to be.  She throws a fit everywhere we go now."  Then he said these words:  "I don't what you're doing because she doesn't behave that way with me."

It's a good thing there were no cacti around.

The thing is, Chris is awesome.  He's 100% their dad and although he works crazy hours at the firehouse and runs a full-time business, when he is home he is daddy to the max.  He does spend time with them alone and with each alone individually.  I have no clever retort about how he doesn't see that behavior because he's not with them or whatever.  That's not the case. 

Honestly?  I think keeping my cool during tantrums may be one of the things that perpetuates them a bit.  Chris isn't as gifted as I (keeping your cool during a tantrum in a crowded store is a gift) and he loses his cool a little bit. Lauren doesn't like that so she stops.  I keep my cool and she keeps on.  Hmmmmmm.

No matter what the deal is with her not throwing such fits with daddy, he should know better than to state it that way.  I will speak to him about that.  Or maybe I'll have William speak to him about it.  William has heard the, "Watch what you say and how you say it" lecture a bajillion times.  In the meantime, I'm going to work on losing my cool and see how that works out.  I'll keep you posted.