I don’t know at what age kids stop thinking their parents are perfect but I recently got a glimpse of it with my 9 year old.  Last week I was struggling to get my older son (9 years old) to practice playing his guitar.  This is never an easy endeavor since it is a bit challenging for him and he’s used to things coming easy.  On this particular day it was an even bigger struggle than usual because he was tired after homework and just wanted to play.  He got very agitated when I wouldn’t back down and started yelling and ranting.  ”You are sooo boring mom!  You don’t have any fun in you, not even a decimal point of fun!” This went on for a minute as he was in an emotional rage and I sat shocked and staring.  I was so caught off guard because even though we have argued in the past, he never criticized me so personally.  It was very hurtful.

I then realized that we may be hitting that point in his life where mom and dad don’t know everything and he wants more control.  I thought that kind of thing happened in the teenage years and really wasn’t prepared for this.  On top of everything, my husband was out of town for the week and I had to deal with this parenting hurdle alone.  So, I decided to stay calm and refused to back down until he cooled off and practiced his guitar.  Eventually he became his normal self and apologized and tried to be cutesy with me the rest of the evening.

My biggest consolation in starting the process of losing goddess status with my child was that my younger son (7 yrs) watched his brother’s behavior and then came running to give me a hug!  He couldn’t understand why his brother was being so mean to mom.  Mommy is so nice and never boring.  Goddess status restored….for a few more years anyway.