Perks to motherhood... does not include tantrums

Dealing with five children in one house is... tiresome at times.
Sometimes annoying, always testing, and never relaxing.
It has its perks, don't get me wrong.
But some days when bedtime arrives, I do a mental leap for joy.

Lately, Dean Kelly has been testing the waters in a horribly tantrum-like way that is fully equipped with screams, "I hate yous" and tears, lots and lots of tears.

What things trigger these emotions from my otherwise sweet little 4 year old comedian?
- running out of a particular snack
- asking him to get dressed
- making him go use the restroom
- feeding him dinner
- telling him to pick up his toys
- touching a toy that he intended to play with

Basically the list goes on and on with typical boy behavior and preschool tantrums.
But no matter what triggers these reactions, they are not pretty!

Sometimes I feel like the nerve endings on the back of my neck are completely exposed and my brain vibrates from the noise and cries. Sending mommy into meltdown mode is not a good idea. Then again, this mommy is not the world's best disciplinarian, something I am attempting to work on. Michael has to only say the word or pretend like he's getting up and the behavior comes to an immediate halt. I sometimes wonder if I'm truly that much of a push over or if it just the difference between mom and dad.

His latest weapon of choice in this battle for the wills is one phrase, one phrase that he must believe packs an enormous amount of punch. All it takes is a simple "no" or "don't" and Dean lashes out "I'M NOT YOUR SON ANYMORE". The first time he said it, I was dumbfounded. Then I chuckled. Then I laughed.

In his quickly developing brain he has come to the conclusion that if he divorces himself as my son that I no longer get to tell him what to do. He'll be a free man on his own, able to do as he pleases. What my sweet, misbehaving little Michael clone fails to understand is that he'll be my son no matter what he does.

Reminds me of some other rude, temper tantrum throwing individuals.
Who?
You.
Me.
And the person sitting next to you.

We are all selfish, stubborn little humans that believe that we can do what we want, when we want to and when we are corrected, we lash out. In particular, we lash out at God. When things don't go our way, we spite Him. When we don't get what we want, it's all His fault. We blame Him, then we alienate ourselves from Him and we think that somehow we have "won".

Scripture tells us that there is NOTHING that we can do separate us from the love of God. No tantrum too big, no wrong too bad, no sin too much. You can yell at Him, stomp your feet, throw yourself into convulsions, but He will never stop loving you.

Dean can drive me banana's, will send me to gray hair and may add a few wrinkles to my forehead, but I will never disown him or stop loving him. He may not understand that now but I hope he always knows that there is no tantrum that could keep me away from him. And the same goes for you and your Heavenly Father.

I hate tantrums.
But I love my son.
I guess that's one of those "perks" I was talking about.