Sometimes the Attitude Brings on the Sugar

Sometimes, Lyn's attitude gets away with her.  As with all of us, she has her crabby moments.  She may talk back to Mom reminding her to do her chores like make her bed or take out the trash.  She may snap "I know how to brush my teeth!" if Mom reminds her to brush them before bed.   If she goes to be crabby, there's a darn good chance that she'll wake up crabby.  Normal stuff.

On Monday, Mom had to wake Lyn so she'd have enough time to get dressed and eat something before her speech therapist arrives for their weekly session.  The therapist has asked that Lyn eat breakfast before the session because Lyn's more focused then.  Normally, Lyn hates eating breakfast. 

Well, the night before, Lyn went to bed crabby. She snapped at Mom about both the trash and the teeth.  In the morning, Lyn was such a ball of sunshine and happiness that she snapped at Mom about eating breakfast and her teeth again.  Mom had enough and told her to not use that tone of voice.  Lyn burst into tears.  She had enough time to settle down, eat and apologize before therapy began.

When the therapist arrived, Lyn decided to be sugar sweet.  The therapy session lasted an hour but by noon, Lyn was being so solicitous and sickingly sweet that Mom was sick of that too.  We usually make jokes about her sending us into a diabetic coma with her sweetness.

I can honestly say that this is not a new development.  She's always doled out the sugary sweet behavior whenever she's been reprimanded for being crabby.  It used to drive me nuts when we were teens.  She would do everything she could to make me angry while I was doing homework.  It was deliberate and calculated.  The moment she heard Mom's car pulling into the driveway, the sugar would start oozing.  I chuckle about it now because I remember so many times when she'd say "I was good today, right?  I didn't interrupt your homework."  At the time, I think my jaws were pretty firmly clenched and a twitch bothered my eye. 

Now, if only I could remind myself to chuckle when my younger child pulls the same devil/angel switcheroo.

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