I don’t know if I can cut it as a parent.

God do I suck.

I’m home tonite with the kids while my wife is out.

We had dinner, we played in the yard, everyone had a bath. Bedtime was thirty minutes ago.

The baby is still screaming in bed, inconsolable. I’ve done all I can think of and it hasn’t helped, probably made it worse.

Middle kid is asleep. Bless his heart, he’s fighting a virus (running a fever today) so he’s just worn out and I’m worrying that it’s something worse than a bug that everyone in town seems to have.

Oldest child is alternating screaming at me and in tears. I took away his fucking gameboy for the third time. He keeps sneaking it into bed (can’t see the damn thing in the dark anyway, it’s not one of the fancy ones with a light in it).

This time I threw it in the trash. That’s where the tears are from. He realized ten minutes after I said “this is going in the trash” that I actually did it. He doesn’t have another one.

See, I suck, don’t I?

I’ve tried all the positive stuff. I’ve tried ignoring problem behaviors to see if will extinguish on their own. About the gameboy – I had to deliver a consequence. Taking it from under his pillow wasn’t working.

When my wife gets home I have to go to the grocery store since we’re out of motrin and I’m worried that my son’s fever will come back in the night. Luckily the store is open until midnite. They also have Ben and Jerry’s.

He’s now declaring that mommy will ‘spank your little hiney’ when she get’s home, right after she gets the gameboy out of the trash. That would be more attention than I’ve gotten from her in nine months. Bring it on.

For now, I’m going to try and console my baby. Mr. Gameboy will just have to wait until later when I can deal with him rationally.