Tuesday, January 25, 2005

We had a fine dinner this evening. My kids liked the tenderloin tips I cooked. When Paul Denise was done with his meal, he watched TV while talking with someone on the phone. Both Pearl and I were busy discussing something when my son scolded us to lower our voices which surprised us.

Then I stood up and instructed my daughter to clean up the table when she's done. I went to my room to pray the Angelus but I couldn't hear my prayers. The kids were noisy and yelling at each other. Right after I went out of my room, they were fighting with each other. I tried to break them apart but both didn't stopped attacking each other until I got a chance and pushed Denise inside my room and hurriedly locked the door. He was so furious. I saw his nose was bleeding.

After an hour of insults and accussations of being unfair to them, Paul Denise would like to go out to the living room and watch TV. I let him promised me that he will behave and will not attack his sister anymore. Couple of hours, he got bored and went inside my room again and fall asleep.

It's my chance to talk with my daughter. I saw her holding a small piece of ice on her face, she got a blackeye. I didn't say a word until she's ready to go to bed. I demanded that she must ignore her big brother in the morning and pretend he's not there especially when he tease her and challenge her for another fist fight. For the first time, I kept all knives hidden somewhere in the kitchen.

The source of Paul Denise's anger was not really because of our noisy conversation but, because he's jealous and someone pushed him to believe that my daughter and I were maltreating him. Now that they are both sleeping, I couldn't help but ask myself, where did I go wrong? They never listen to me anymore... :-(