A Single Daddy’s Blog

I learned that in spanish class when I was in high school. Of course I learned it in spanish and I still remember how to say it in spanish, I am just not sure how to type it.

Anastasia has had a tough time keeping her mouth closed these days. To the extent she has completely pissed off the assistant principle and a few teachers. She argues with everyone. Disrespects most everyone and generally has a bad attitude.

Nothing is different in our lives. Nothing has changed. Nothing new has started. So why, why is she acting out like this?

She got to bite into a bar of soap last night for cursing and yelling. I am not happy about it, although what else can I do? I tried the nice talks, the mean talks, yelling, spanking, grounding and just about everything else.

She has spring break coming up, maybe she just needs a break from school.

I am single. That fact is pretty obvious considering the blog name. I have full custody of Anastasia and her mother saw Anastasia for the first time in almost 7 years just before Christmas.

Reality is; I never thought I would be here raising my daughter on my own. I never thought I would be single at this age in life. I was a dealt a set of cards and I played them. I am exceptionally happy with the relationship I have with my daughter. Sure she lies, although I did too when I was little.

No one will ever come between my daughter and I. That is a picture I have painted for Anastasia since she was younger. And it seems in recent months Anastasia has lost sight of that fact. So I have restated it several times to her.  There is a bond that children have with their parents and that needs to be made clear to children over and over again.

I know I have not done a good job of this  is something I need to do a much better job with.

Today I got a text from my daughter while I was shaving. She wrote, “Friends, Can I bring my webkins to school today since we have a half day? Please, Please!”

I immediately wrote back to her with a simple, “Yes”

I thought about her text for a second after I sent my response and thought it was kind of an oxymoron that she was asking me ‘as a friend’ if she could bring her Webkins to school. I mean, clearly I needed to make a parental decision when I answered her.  I laughed to myself and continued my morning rituals of getting ready.

A little later on she sent me another text that said, “Ty, Ty, Ty, Luv you lots!” Her and I needed to have a talk.

When I saw her in the kitchen a little later I told her that it was kind of hard to be her friend when she is asking me permission to do something. She made that face I love, the one that tells me, “Oh yeah, you’re right.” She understood what I was saying. :)

Then I mentioned to her about the love text she sent. I explained that love is not something that changes simply because I do or do not let her do something. She got that too I think.

Oh yeah, and the purple and black striped tights are in the trash. She could not come up with the last time she wore them when I asked her. So little white lie resulted in the tights going in the trash. I really disliked those tights anyways. :)

I have spent the past few days reflecting on what I have been doing, how I have been discipling and how I have been spending each moment.

I decided yesterday Anastasia didn’t need to be grounded any more. Now, don’t get me wrong, she had her grounding easy, I was always coming up with chores (easy) and projects for her to complete. I just started thinking, she is WAY smart, she knows what she is doing and I just need to be on toes to watch her doing it.

So, we had a good night, today has been great so far. I love my little girl, always have, always will, just sometimes are more appreciated. :)

Today Anastasia and I wen over my parents house. My mother is still working so just my father was home. He was having a rough day, his cable modem went out and once I got there we troubleshot it and figured out his router went bad and it wasn’t his modem after all. We spent about 4 hours between me running home to get my spare cable modem and then again for my spare router.

During this time Anastasia was doing her typical math work she has been doing everyday. She does not know her multiplication tables like the back of her hand yet and she should. So I have her writing them daily and hopefully by the time winter break is over she will know them. Plus she is grounded for lying to me the  last week of school.

I was shooting pictures for my other website (whatitsworthnow.com) and decided to take some video of this merry go round. My father was bringing in a ladder and needed Anastasia to move. She decided she needed to go all the way across the room so she could be in the background of the video I was shooting.

Not cool. Especially when I am doing this for a site that has nothing to do with her. And she knows better. This is not the first time I have shot video of something and she decides to get herself into it any way she can.

I had her write a paper about why she shouldn’t have done it and she lied in that too. She wrote about how she was trying to see grandpa’s computer screen. For the record, the whole time I was videoing she was staring at me and the camera and grandpa’s computer screen was behind her.

I am VERY frustrated with this right now….