Here’s how it went down.

It was time to go to Funtown for some skating and game-playing family madness! The girls were excited. I was excited. Andy was willing to join 😉 I asked the girls to get dressed so we could leave. They willingly did so with no complaints. All was progressing smoothly. That’s when I should have been worried… but I got complacent.

I brushed Brooklyn’s hair and asked if she wanted a pony tail. She said 2 pony tails. I said “OK, I’ll put in pig tails. Here’s a blue and a green hairband and some barrettes.” She said “ooh and a pink one.” I saw a pink barrette and grabbed it too.

I put in two beautifully done and evenly placed pig tails that I was pretty proud of. I told her she was all finished. She reached back and felt her head and said “is there a back one?” I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about, so I said, “No, there’s one on each side because you wanted pig tails and not a pony tail, remember?” Well that was the end of all sanity.

After about 20 minutes of ear piercing screams and a parent switch from me to Andy to try and figure out what the holy mother was happening, Brooklyn said “I WANT THREE PONYTAILS AND SHE ONLY GAVE ME TWO.”

Three ponytails? How could I have guessed that? Turns out there was a pink hairband that she had originally been asking for when I so dumbly thought she wanted the pink barrette. What kind of crap is that, right? What a failure of a mom and what a terrible life for that three year old…

When I read parenting advice, they say “learn the triggers of your child’s tantrums so you can defuse or avoid the situations before they even start.” HA! Tell me how I could have seen that one coming, oh super-wise parenting experts! In the meantime, I’ll go drink wine.