Challenges of Parenting

I don't know about you, but for me, parenting is far from easy. Every day brings new challenges, trials, and frustrations. Today just happens to be a double whammy: Paige is growing up, and today she lied.

This morning when I went to get Paigey up out of bed, I picked out a super cute outfit for her as it's her last day of first grade. I find it hard to believe that she's almost 7 1/2 and finishing up first grade already. Wasn't she just born last month? This is one challenge that I'm facing every day - my kids are growing up way too fast. The advice you're given when you're pregnant or a new mom is "Don't blink, they grow up too fast, enjoy every moment". Well, they are right...and there's not much I can do but enjoy their childhood while I can.

First day of First Grade

Last day of First Grade, I can't belive how much she's changed!

While I was waking her up, I thought she looked a little different. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it, but something was a little off. I shrugged it off, then went to make breakfast for the kids and get Pete out the door on time (which is difficult when we slept through the alarm...). It wasn't until she was finishing up breakfast and we were putting her hair up into a ponytail that I realized what it was:

Her bangs were drastically shorter.

She's been growing her bangs out all year, and she was finally getting to the point where she didn't need to wear bobby pins every day. The last hair cut she had she asked for bangs again, but after we talked about it, we decided that she could get bangs for the fall before school. Last year she had bangs in the summer, and they were getting in her eyes during swim lessons, making it difficult for her to see when she was swimming. She agreed she didn't want to deal with that again, so she'd happily keep them long for the summer.

So, trying to not panic and yell, I asked her why she cut her bangs. She panicked, and screamed that she didn't do it. I asked who did, thinking that maybe she got gum in her hair yesterday and her teacher or the nurse had to cut it out of her hair and just forgot to tell me; unlikely, but still a possibility. She then replied she didn't know who cut her hair, that it just fell out while she was drying her hair last night after her shower. I ask her again why she cut her hair, and she keeps repeating that she doesn't know who cut it or how it got cut but she didn't do it.

At this point, I'm REALLY trying to not yell. I decide I need to walk away, so I go to Paigey's room. There on her desk are a pair of scissors with hair between the blades. In her garbage are chunks of hair that have been poorly covered up by a tissue. I call Pete because I need someone to help me stay calm, and he's just as frustrated as I am. It's not the fact that she cut her hair that frustrates us as much as the fact she keeps lying about it. I get off the phone, and I ask Paigey again who cut her hair, and she says she doesn't know. I show her the scissors and the garbage can, and she said she doesn't know how it got there. I told her that I was upset that she was choosing to lie, and that when she wanted to tell me the truth, I was ready to listen.

A few minutes later, she came up to me and said that she did cut her hair. She wanted bangs, and she didn't want to wait for them. I reminded her that we had talked about keeping them long for swim lessons, and then she started to cry harder because she forgot about that. She said she didn't want to look funny with her new bangs, so I used bobby pins and lots of hair spray, and I think she looks okay today. I gently told her that she can't cut her own hair because she could cut herself, and she cut more than just her bangs, that some of her long pieces of hair were cut, too. I reminded her that only Miss Kim (our hairdresser) can cut her hair, and that we'll have Miss Kim try to make her bangs look better at our appointment in a few days. She said she had lied because she didn't want to get in trouble, that she was just really upset by her bad bang cut. She was funny and said that she's not going to cut her hair again because it just looks "ridiculous"!

Paigey and Ry; you can barely tell her bangs are short!

She knows lying's not acceptable, but I don't know if dealing with the bad hair cut is consequence enough for that. What are your thoughts? What do you do when your kids lie to you?