Calming down

Once again Mim and I had a knock down disagreement and then finally we talked it out and for a while I think we will be fine. She feels that I am very strict and I should allow her to do whatever she feels she want to...sounds like attachment issues or teenage..probably a co-mingling of both, but I finally told her "live with it or get out". She kept insinuating that I change and not her. At first, I felt like she might have some merit in what she was saying (for a year or so, maybe I was too protective), but now I finally am just saying no, this is the way it is. She is not mature enough to handle all that she insists she is old enough to be able to do. We have been doing so well for 4 weeks, but this last blow up came from her exhaustion from school all day and cross country practice and meets at night or weekends...and I am seriously considering not allowing her to do track in the spring because of the stress she feels from juggling it all. Boy do I know how that feels too...

I think about how for the last nearly 4 years I have been carrying" Mim...in school, in sports, around the house etc.,...you know what I mean all that goes along with parenting, but then you add the layer of learning a new language and a new culture on top of that....we as parents help them by supporting and maneuvering them through this new life, and it is hard, and it is a lot, and it is stressful some days. It is all worth it when they achieve success like Mim being able to take French because she has a high enough reading lexile and access score in only 3 1/2 years of being home versus the statistical 7 years and when they say they love you and appreciate all you do for them.

Yet she tells me her life has been terrible and I have done nothing for her....she is good at the insults....it is then that I feel it has not been worth the stress of the last 4 years.....it has not been worth it at all.

But to see the bright side, I think, I hope we are going into a good spell, at least for awhile now.