Sad Rhino

I was trucking along, doing ok in the Orange Rhino department when Friday happened. It was one of those days. You know, the one where the kids can’t get along to save their lives, me constantly having to play referee and keep them directed where they are supposed to be directed. Then when I went to the restroom, the one place where I should have some semblance of privacy, I had not one or two, but three children in the room with me at the SAME TIME! There were a couple of times I kind of lost it, just a little. Once when Geo was playing around on the piano instead of doing his school work and wouldn’t respond to my repeated calling of his name for anything. Finally I had had it. I gave an extra loud, irritation-driven shout of his name… and this time he looked. I felt awful. I knew I’d just tripped, rhino-style. I wasn’t happy. Then I let fly on Eli for something else he was doing, can’t remember now what it was, but I was just SO frustrated. No excuse.

I didn’t yell anything besides their name or QUIET! but it was enough for me. I don’t want to do that, but I guess it’s going to take awhile to learn how to travel a different road.

So, this week in a humble attempt to get back on track, I’m going to make myself an orange bracelet to keep my goal in plain sight. Also, I’m going to print off the list of alternatives to yelling found on Orange Rhino’s blog.

Oh, whew, I feel a bit better… I just went back over to Orange Rhino’s blog and I realize I just did 2 “Oopsie Snaps” rather than crossing over into the super-nasty, yelling zone. I think it will still make it easier to stay in control of my stress if I keep the goal fresh in my mind throughout the day so I’ll still go again with my game plan. Trucking along, I guess I’m on day 18.

Orange Rhino Challenge

Ok, so I don’t consider myself a raging, out-of-control kind of yeller, but I do sometimes snap and let out an “argghhhhhh!” kind of holler usually followed by a question to whoever will listen hinting at the cause of the outburst such as, “Can everyone just be QUIET so you can hear me read?!?” or “Why did you just hit your sister/brother?!?” It rather reminds me of my days in school when our much beloved choir director, tired of all the chatter would raise the lid of a nearby desk letting it SLAM, making us all jump, but definitely getting our attention.

With four littles running around competing with each other for the title of  The Loudest One Of The Bunch, I find myself raising my voice a lot just to be heard over the din. But, when I heard about the Orange Rhino challenge, I figured I was not without sin in the yelling department, but that I really would like to get control of this little area of my life. So here goes, today was Day 1 of my challenge and so far so good, I haven’t yelled. I have used my stern mommy voice which Geo misinterpreted as raising my voice, but I told him I could still speak with authority and it not be yelling (which it wasn’t).

If you feel like joining me, head over to The Orange Rhino, read the details, and jump right in. I’ll be glad for the company.