My gift for Mother's Day was learning what a shitty mom I am
My kindergartner gave me one of those "all about Mommy" questionnaires that her teacher helped her fill out. Two highlights (my daughter's responses in italics):
"She's always saying: yelling at me when I don't get in the car."
"I love her because: she buys me things when I'm good."
I feel broken. Like an utter failure as a mother. I'm so sad that this is the stuff that was salient in her mind.
A little context: my daughter is showing very strong symptoms of ADHD and OCD, and they're impacting her ability to get in the car to get to school on time (among many other things). I don't actually yell, but I do have to use a pretty stern tone of voice when asking nicely hasn't worked and we are completely out of time. She's one of those kids who is extremely sensitive and interprets any serious/stern tone as yelling. We've also resorted to a treasure chest where she gets some kind of small reward when she's had a good day, because...well, we're desperate. We can't get any therapists on our insurance to call us back. I never felt good about the treasure chest, but today cements it: we are done with that. It breaks my heart that the first thing that came to mind was my "yelling" and buying her stuff when she's "good" (we don't even use that word to talk about her, lol, we just talk about good choices).
Anyone else get roasted in their adorable little Mother's Day questionnaire? 🫠