Why is it I am always the Bad Cop? Pat always gets to come in on his white horse and save the day (at least in the eyes of our girls). This weekend is no different.
For weeks, Pat has had plans to go to Pittsburgh this weekend to participate in a golf tournament put on by one of his high school buddies. He had planned on taking the big girls up with him for some alone time with him as well as an opportunity to see Grandma and Pappy without any cousins around to spoil their time.
As usual, we had to dangle this trip in front of the girls like a carrot in order to keep them on the straight and narrow. It worked for Sarah, but not so much for Megan. She refused to participate in pre-team swim practice (daily swim lessons with assistant coaches from Sarah's swim team). It didn't help that the main coach for her class was a tad bit impatient with the 4, 5 & 6 year-olds in the class. [Seriously, in a terse voice did you really have to threaten her that if she didn't start participating she would have to be removed from the water because she was holding back the whole class? If you had just let her get acclimated a bit by standing on the stairs, she probably would have been fine. Also, if you would have joked around with her instead of being all "coachy", it might have helped.]
All Megan had to do was participate in swim class. I usually don't issue ultimatums that I don't fully plan on following through with. So, when she refused to participate on Wednesday (the 3rd day in a row), I pulled the plug on the trip. As much as I wanted my "free" time, I was willing to sacrifice for the greater good. I knew that Pat was disappointed and that my mother-in-law would be VERY disappointed, but it had to be done....she has gotten out of control.
Wednesday, Pat informed me that my mother-in-law had already purchased tickets to the zoo and that their Aunt had gone out of her way to secure pool passes for them as well. He really wanted Megan to go so that this was not a waste. He got to play good cop. I think that he gave her a stern lecture Thursday morning and told her that she needed to apologize to me and that if she did, she would be able to go on the trip.
As I said goodbye to them later that afternoon, I reminded Megan that she had been given a gift. If I found out that she had behaved horribly on the trip she would be in trouble upon her return.
I'm sure she doesn't believe it though..not with Daddy always coming to her rescue.
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