Reason #1 I Want To Sell Kylie

The whining...oh God, the whining.

Now, let me preface this with my credentials. I have been a mom for 15 years. This is my third child, and I also have a degree in psychology. (Ok, it's only a B.A., but still) I'm no rookie at this. I know that when a child whines, you do not give in. If you do, the next time they will whine x infinity, in hopes that you will give in again. I know this. My child, it seems, does not grasp that her whining x infinity is not going to get her what she wants.

Today, I decided to give the rest of the family a break and took Kylie to a park with a splashpad. This is reasonable, because we live in the Phoenix area and it's about 183 degrees today. This is a large park, with the splashpad, a playground, a duck pond, train, tennis courts, etc. Today, the park is pretty much deserted, except for the people at the splashpad. Why? Because it's 183 degrees.

So we get to the splashpad, and she starts running around, getting wet. After about a minute and a half, I am hot, and I get wet too. There are about 10 kids running around, and she is having a good time, as evidenced below:

After a while, she decides she wants to play on the playground. The playground is absolutely deserted, due to the fact that touching any of the equipment would give you third-degree burns. I tell Kylie that it's too hot to play on the playground, and there's no one else over there, and wouldn't you rather have fun with the kids in the water? No, she wants to be on the playground. So I lug my stuff over there, and sit in the shade, watching as she walks up the stairs without touching any of the flaming hot railings, and down a tubed slide, which I guess is not so hot, because it's a tube. After about 2 minutes, even though I'm wet, I'm getting hot. Now it's ultimatum time. The conversation goes like this:

Me: "Kylie, it's too hot to play over here. You have a choice. We can either go back and play on the splashpad, or we can go home."

Kylie: "But I want to play over hereeeeeeeeee!"

Me: "I know you do, but I'm really hot, and you need to decide whether we are going to go back to the splashpad, or if we're going home. If you don't decide, I will decide for you."

At this point, she chooses option #3, which is to start the whine-fest (and not the good kind, which would have included a cheese platter)

"But I don't waaaaaaant to go hommmmmeeeeee! I wannnnnnt to plaaaaaaayyyyy!" But she doesn't want to go back to the splashpad either, apparently. (Insert half-crying, and lots more whining here)

Me: Sighs and puts my shoes on. "Come on, we're going home. I'm not going to listen to you whine."

Kylie: More whining and crying as we walk to the car.

Me: Wishes for a nice big margarita

Reason #46 that I am a bad mommy:

As we get to the car, she folds her arms, puts her little nose in the air and says "Hmph! I'm not talking to you anymore!"

Me: "Promise?"