I Make Little Girls Cry

Since moving into our home in October our kids have struggled with finding kids to play with.  We live in a pretty small culdesac with just 10 homes on it. We're not a part of a bigger subdivision, just a small little culdesac in quite little Fruita. We love our home and MOST of our neighbors, the ones across the street are awesome and we've really enjoyed getting to know them. There are only two other houses on the street that have children at all, and one of them is a baby girl who just turned one. My kids are pretty limited on who they get to play with.

Outside of the neighbor boy who is 9 and the baby girl across the street, there is a little girl who stays with her Grandpa during the day while her mom and dad work. If I had to guess her age I'd say she's probably 6 or 7. She's a pretty sweet little girl, but she has some MAJOR boundary/manner issues. Over the summer she has managed to teach Gavin most of the "I'm Sexy and I Know It" song, explain to Gavin what "sexy" means, and ask if she can come in to "have a look around the house". She's also one of those little girls who asks "Where are you going?" every time we get into the car and "Why?" when I tell Gavin and Zoey that it's time to come inside. I'm not sure why that bugs me so much. Probably because if I ever did that as a kid I would have gotten slapped upside the head! I kid. I wouldn't have gotten slapped but my parents did a great job of teaching me that it's none of my dang business. She also manages to ring the doorbell EVERY SINGLE DAY in the middle of nap time. This is where the making little girls cry part comes in.....

Let me set the stage so you fully understand why I totally lost it yesterday. My kids have generally been fantastic sleepers.  They go to bed at a decent time and will most of the time sleep until I go and wake them up.  Gavin has a record sleep in time of 9:30am! Anyhow, lately Tanner has started getting up with the sun. Literally. As soon as the sun pops up over the horizon he is out of bed and wanting breakfast. This wouldn't be such a big deal if he didn't go to bed at 10:00pm the night before.  Don't judge me, this ONLY happens during the summer because it is still light out at 8:30pm. I promise! If he doesn't get a nap he is completely unmanageable. He will melt down over the smallest things and just sit on the couch and wail. It's not pleasant, to say the very least. So Tanner had gotten up pretty early yesterday, we had finished breakfast by 7:15. We had a pretty laid back day just laying but I had a few errands to run which kind of overlapped with nap time. He dozed off in the car so when we came home I hurried and ran him inside and lied him down. He woke up just briefly as I lied him in bed but quickly went back to sleep.  Ten minutes later I hear the doorbell ring. DANG IT! Tanner's and Gavin's room is just a few steps away from the front door and this little girl is LOUD. I was busy in the other room and heard Gavin say it was the neighbor girl and that he didn't feel like playing outside. I told him it was okay to answer the door and to tell her politely that he couldn't play right now. She asked him why and he told her that he was too hot to play outside. He also very politely asked her not to ring the doorbell again because his brother is sleeping. She said okay and left. As soon as the front door shut Tanner was out of bed and over nap time. I tried to get him to lay back down and he just screamed and cried. So I came to terms that Tanner was not going to get a nap that day and went back to cleaning the kitchen. 

Twenty minutes later or so as I'm working in the kitchen my dog starts growling and barking. We don't have blinds on our sliding glass door and he normally barks and growls at every cat that wanders through the field behind our house. I assumed this was what was making him go so crazy and hollered at him to stop. This went on for about five minutes or so before I went to get the squirt bottle. As I rounded the breakfast counter and headed toward the front bathroom I saw a little face peeking in the front door. Okay... I'm going to be honest here, she scared the CRAP out of me! My first reaction was to scream but it kind of came out as a yell "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!"  (I know if I don't put this down my sister is totally going to rat me out... I didn't say heck... I said H-E-Double Hockey Sticks) she was clearly as scared as I was because she began to back out and head back to her Grandpa's house. I opened the front door and said "That's not okay! You don't peek in the windows, you don't open my front door. If you want to play you knock on the front door and if we don't answer you go home. And if Gavin tells you he can't play you don't keep coming back! You need to go home, now!"

Looking back I was probably a little more forceful than I needed to be. I mean, she's 6. But I can't stand bad manners on little kids. And she scared me! It was totally not my fault! She had it comin'! A few minutes after our encounter I was chatting with my sister and told her what had happened. She said "You cussed at a little girl?!" Now I feel like a terrible monster. To be fair, she didn't cry. She just kind of stared at me and probably called me a name once I closed the door. She most likely will never come to the door again and Gavin will be friendless. Way to go, Kim! Mom of the year right here..... anyway. I feel like maybe I should apologize. Thoughts????