How Grouchy Happens

I arrived at the office today in a major funk and didn't know why. I went to bed about average time last night. No one woke me up with an "accident." I had a good breakfast. I do have lots to do today, but ample time to do it.

Trying to sort out the mood, I decided to revisit my morning step by step. Well, first, I was awakened at 4:40 AM by the overhead light in our bedroom suddenly coming on. For some time we've suspected that a neighbor has ceiling fans or something else on the same frequency as two of the remote-controlled fans in our house - our bedroom and our family room. The speed of the fan changes from where it was set at night before we get up in the morning. I will leave the house with all fans/lights off, and come home to find those two fans on. Well, I'm pretty convinced of it now. There was no one else in our house awake at 4:40 but our light came on. That was very disorienting. I can see why it is a successful form of torture.

As is the standard, once it was time to get up for real, the girls drug their feet and found other things to do, prompting me to micro-manage their minutes. Madeline was happy upon first awakening, however, due to the tooth fairy's first ever visit last night. We managed to get out of the house at the tail-end of our optimal leaving time and nobody forgot anything major. I was ready for work and they were ready for school.

Then, on the way to school, that infernal bickering started up again. It has gotten so bad over the past month. Almost unbearable. I figured out how to solve the problem if it revolves around a toy or other object. I take it away indefinitely. The girls unite in their indignation against me, the non-understanding Mother, and the bickering is solved. Most often, though, the fighting is just over stupid stuff. They are bored or hungry or tired or just awake, I don't know. It finally escalated in the car to the point that Maddie told Katie she was "100% annoying" and Katie, completely put out but lacking the vocabulary to refute that point, bit her. Of course I was loudly called upon to vindicate the innocent and put to death the guilty party; both girls proudly showing off their war wounds. I can hardly sort out the insults, looks, and insinuations, as frequently as they happen and as quickly as they are exchanged. Besides that, I don't enjoy spending my days wading through nasty words and actions. I usually separate them immediately, but that is hard to do in the car. So, all priveleges to speak were confiscated and the ride was a tension-filled quiet, although I had to intercept some lovely looks in the rear-view mirror.

I remember when they were 2 and 4, I think it was. The sibling rivalry was so intense and I felt so unprepared. For some reason, it calmed down after several months. It is in flare-up again and I am so sick of it! It really doesn't seem to matter what form of punishment I can dream up or priveleges I can revoke. There must be some perverse joy in trying to one-up someone else that it outweighs the negative atmosphere and consequences involved. I don't know.

So, anyway, I guess that's how grouchy happens. Weird electrical impulses followed by bickering; all first thing in the morning.