Day 59

There’s a moment, just before Stormy wakes up, when all I see is the precious little girl who needs my love, care and protection. Then she wakes up.

This morning is particularly bad. Not at first. At first she eats her breakfast and puts on her clothes like always. We’re about 5 minutes away from walking to the bus stop when she decides she doesn’t want to go to school. “It’s boring!” I am really sick of hearing those words right now. All my tactics of bribery, cajoling, negotiating and simple logic completely fail. She is immovable. Metaphorically that is. Physically she is quite movable. And in the end that’s the only thing that works. I pick her up, screaming and crying and carry her down to the bus stop.

We, of course, have missed the bus.

By the time the taxi arrives to go to school, she’s completely calm like nothing has happened. I explain that she has lost all TV and tablet privileges until her Mother arrives on Friday. She seems to accept this.

I can’t say I was at my most productive at work today.

Coming home Stormy is an absolute delight. She accepts her “no TV” punishment calmly, eats her chicken soup and is generally well-behaved. If messy. And creative. Stormy complains that dinner is too hot and, instead of refusing to eat, she tips her glass of water into it to cool it down. Genius.

Bath time comes around and “it’s boring” re-emerges. Another sacrifice of soft toys and she’s in the bath. The bed time battle escalates. “It’s boring” once again. After the second hour of this there’s a part of me that just wants to scream. Not at Stormy, but just generally at the world. I take that part of me and compress it as far as it goes. I sure Stormy senses my general detachment, but it’s all I can do to get through the evening.

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* For those who missed the context, I’m not actually single. My wife has started a 5-month contract in Australia (yay). This is a Very Good Thing™. Stormy will be staying with me here in Singapore and I have great help both remotely (from my wife) and locally. I’m writing this purely for fun and to practice writing. :-)