Today I yelled at my son - And I don't feel bad about it.

I will admit that I do yell at my kids from time to time. And when it gets very loud and they get scared I feel bad about it. But today I don't feel bad at all. We live in a building with my brothers family, he has three kids (4.5, 3 and 1). His oldest and Thor are buds. They are so similar, they are in a lot of ways close like brothers. This afternoon after school, the cousins were outside playing as were some neighbors children. When my children were done with homework they went out to ride scooters. Then my nephew decides to play with some of the neighbor kids (one of whom goes to school with him). And Thor is now insisting that his cousin play with him. If he asked to play trains with them, they would have said yes, so it wasn't that he was being excluded. He wanted his cousin all to himself.

My nephew did nothing wrong here. He just didn't want to ride his scooter and to play trains with his friend.I would tell my son to keep riding, but he would always slow down on his scooter in front of the brown stairs of the neighbor's house and end up staring at them. Then I told him to go inside. He got mad, I got mad. He went inside. I then told him (loudly) that he can't beg for anyone's attention. He didn't really understand. Perhaps I was saying it too loudly or not clearly enough. When we got inside, still pretty wound up I told my daughter that if anyone doesn't want to play with her, it was their loss. And they aren't worth her time. I kind of wish I had better words that my little guy would understand about this. At school, I see he is a leader, other kids want to play with him so he is not used to chasing for friends and I think today when he did it frustrated him.

It is a hard lesson to learn, but one that you have to. I know I say "I don't Give Any F's" what people think but that is a lie. Everyone want to be accepted. But you can't always get things the way you want them.

Being a kid is tough, and so is being a parent especially when after a few hundred words you feel bad about the yelling ... and you realize you are a liar.