Silly Bandz Drove Me Over the Edge

O.K., I guess I shouldn't blame it on the Silly Bandz.

Anyone with grade school aged children would most likely know what Silly Bandz are. They resemble rubber bands when worn around the wrist. Yet, once removed and placed on a flat surface, they often reveal their clever shape in the form of an animal or other creature.
So there I was late on Saturday evening after working an 8 hour day with an hour and a half round trip commute, chopping veggies for salads we could enjoy during the week. I was feeling good to be preparing a healthy alternative to grabbing a bag of chips when hunger struck.

Then, something else struck.

It was sense of concern when I saw my son's Silly Bandz abandoned on the counter top. I thought of our new kitten, who plays with everything. When we adopted him, I brought a string toy into the Vet's office to soothe him. In the course of doing what I thought was a good deed to entertain my kitty, the Vet informed me that such a toy usually ends up eaten by a cat and strung around their intestines later to be removed for a sum of nearly $1,000.
Needless to say, those Silly Bandz sitting on the counter quickly brought thoughts of potential pain for our pet and a financial hit for our bank account.
I suggested to my son that he store the Bandz in one of his drawers until he chose to wear them again.

This was met with resistance, and after a day of work, I snapped at him, raising my voice.

Once I had switched my bracelet from one wrist to the other, I saw how upset he looked.

"Switched my bracelet...?", you may be wondering. For those new to my blog, I'll explain. I am wearing my Complaint Free bracelet with my goal in mind.

Inspired by the website: A Compliant Free World.org, I am striving to achieve 21 days of being complaint free. My daily goal is to avoid verbally complaining or criticizing. Although in this situation I was not complaining, or criticizing, I was frustrated and chose to raise my voice. I am striving to use more self-control and to communicate with peace. I could have gotten the same message across, minus all the "drama".

So I made the effort to use a calm voice and I apologized for losing my cool.

I also pointed out that my heart was in the right place when the discussion originated, since the Bandz did pose a threat to our cat.

I asked for his input on why he responded as he did. I learned from listening to him that he sometimes speaks over me because he is afraid of not being given the time to speak, as is the case in school sometimes.
This is understandable, given the ratio of students to teacher. So, my husband reminded him that saying, "Excuse me", is appropriate in those situations.
Then, I suggested we end the night on a positive note so we watched thirty minutes of, "So You Think You Can Dance". It was a smooth ending to a rocky evening.

Becoming a parent has helped me gain a greater respect for my own parents than any other single event could, I believe.
I'll blog sometime about walking in each other's shoes and the lessons I have learned not only from my parents, yet also from my siblings and others. For now, I am falling asleep at the keyboard. Despite what time my computer states, it is almost 1:00 A.M. on Sunday. Time to sign off for now.