High School Musical

I had problems with Bridget again today. We have our good days and bad ones. Today was a bad one. We went to see High School Musical at the Children's Theater then came back to my house afterward for a pizza party with the Girl Scouts. I skipped the black tie wedding that E had to go to this afternoon. I had to clean the house to get ready for the pizza party. When the time to leave for the theater started getting close, I wasn't ready. E had gotten back from the wedding and was waiting to go to the reception at 6pm. Owen was going to the neighbor's house for the night at 3p. I had to get out the door by 3:15 to meet everyone to go to the theater. It was not my best moment.

I got to the parking lot to meet the other parents easily on time. Bridget was not happy with me that I was 'early'. A better parent would have taken the time right then to talk to Bridget about the hectic day up until now and try to understand her frustration of being ignored all day. I guess that's the reason for the phrase 'hindsight is 20/20'. It didn't even cross my mind. I was still uptight and so was she. Waiting in the parking lot was miserable. I was tying to get permission slips and she was playing in the rental van (that's a whole other post) with all the girls. She was so bad. I've taken her to the Children's Theater at least 6 times and she has always behaved perfect because it is fun. This time she wouldn't sit in her chair. She kept hitting the old woman in front of her. She kept bouncing around. She was by far the worst behaved of all the girls. uugghh.

You know, I've often wondered if Girl Scouts is worth it for her. I spend so much time getting things ready that I ignore her. All the 'safety issues' I have to worry about really make outings stressful for me. I know the solution is to be more organized and prepared, but I'm not sure I can be that person just yet. I'm working on it and that is my ideal, but when am I gonna get it right? I know what I need to do, but I didn't keep calm, I wasn't prepared, and I didn't have the mental energy left to help her deal with her frustration. I know this is a learning process, but the act of showing my concern and being considerate of her is not difficult. I could have taken a minute to talk to her, but I got stuck in my old ways.