This just in:

Being a parent is not always easy, fun or glamorous.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "No shit, Dick Tracy. Who told you that it was?"

Nobody. And don't be so snarky. It's early Wednesday morning and we've only got to work three days this week. Smile some more.

Anyway, what prompted the above statement was our afternoon yesterday, but let me track back a little further.

Yesterday morning, after waiting until 10am for 1Doh to get up for the day, we headed to Wally World to pick up some necessities and a $20 pack of fireworks. Since we weren't going anywhere, we figured (and 1Doh agreed) that doing our own show in the street was the way to go.

Well, we got home around noon, and 1Doh already started showing some signs of, shall we say, independent behavior? We preach morning, noon and night that she really only has three major responsibilities in life: Obey your parents, use your manners and tell the truth. I figure everything else will get taken care of under that three-pronged approach.

So she was dilly-dallying when asked to clean up or get something or come inside or close the door or go to the bathroom or anything else, and by late afternoon, the fuse was lit. GBD stated several times in a prodding, informal fashion that if she didn't start obeying immediately and knocking off the "why's" instead of the "yes ma'ams" and "yes sirs" that we weren't going to be able to do the fireworks.

I really don't think she believed us.

That is, until, after cajoling her thru dinner and handwashing and cleaning up her toys that I finally said "That's it. No fireworks tonight. If you obey tonight and tomorrow, we may be able to do them then, but you've missed your chance. That's it."

Man, did the tears flow. I've never ever seen her (or heard her) cry like that before in her four years with us. And beyond the tears and crying was the absolute disbelief that I'd done what I did. Now, you have to know that I've thrown the "Do that again and we're going inside for the day" atomic bomb before and followed thru, so this wasn't unprecedented.

I've also followed thru on the "The next marker that doesn't have a cap on it and is sitting alone at the kitchen table while you play elesewhere is going in the trash."

One thing we do as parents is stay quite consistent.

But nothing prepared me for "this."

It took a good 20 minutes to get thru the monkey cries and to the "I'm going to explain this again" part where we break down every part of the cause and effect.

Then, I told her I loved her and carried her upstairs for her stories and bed. I reiterated that it was up to her and her alone whether tonight was fireworks night or not, and I think she finally got it.

We shall see. I can tell you that I slept like shit last night.

I know it was the right thing to do. Now I hope it was worth it.