Tonight, Z had yet another melt down with regards to her phone. I had taken the girls with me to one of my (embarrassing) jobs - being a courier for postmates. Ordinarily, they love coming with me and get into the whole process. They scour the "heat map" for the busiest job locations and help my find parking and house numbers.
However, tonight, things were different. Z was refusing to cooperate or listen to me. E was screaming because Z was antagonizing her. Z hit E for whatever reason and when I told them to stop, so I took her phone away and told her that she could have it back the next morning. This triggered a TWO HOUR screaming match. It frustrated me so much and I really didn't know how to handle myself. I mean, what does one do when their extremely angry 11 year old is lying on the floor screaming and yelling "GIVE ME MY PHONE, GIVE IT BACK." So I told her that for every time she yelled at me to "GIVE IT BACK," she would get another day added on. She probably yelled it 40 times, but I wasn't counting. I was too busy trying to keep calm and not totally blow a gasket.
So, to my parent readers, how DOES one deal with an inconsolable pre-teen who is not listening to logic and/or reason?!?! How does one keep calm? How can I firmly place boundaries upon her without the back-and-forth arguments? I'm in need of some suggestions because I feel like I am running in circles half the time and feel like banging my head against the wall when we argue. Her logic and reason go out the window and I'm left with this Jeckyll/Hyde transformation with her switching between reasonable and unreasonable, tears and screaming to apologies and hugs... don't know how much of this I can take or whether I will survive her teenage years.
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