Hot temperature, Hotter tempers

Lately I've just really been, well, to put it bluntly, sucking as a mom. I'm not trying to, but it seems I've not been too in tune with my children's needs.

Take the incident with Cameron today. It was finally warm and sunny, reaching over 70 degrees. I just wanted to scream "Hallelujah!" everytime I heard someone say the temp. But with warm temperatures comes a warm car when you initially enter it.

I picked the boys up from school, and we drove home in the minivan...me in the front, Ella in the middle and the two monsters in the back. As I was driving, Cameron started squealing, "I'm hot! I'm hot!" and was trying to remove his shirt, which is a difficult shirt to take off, and he couldn't accomplish this task.

"Just hold on Cameron, I'm turning up the air conditioner. It will start to cool off."

Without giving the air a chance to circulate, he continued complaining, this time with screams and ridiculous amounts of crying. "But I'm so hot!" Sob. Sob. Sob.

So I cranked the air some more, yet the crying continued even louder. I couldn't understand what the problem was, for I was quite cool. And neither Max nor Ella was complaining (but they were both sleeping). Nothing I did or said lessened his cries. I yelled, I threatened, I kept quiet, I turned up the music...but he just kept crying incessantly about how hot he was.

When we arrived home, Cameron was approached by two neighborhood friends to see if he wanted to come over and play. To me, this was the perfect opportunity for a consequence. He needed to learn that he couldn't act as he was acting and still get to do whatever he wanted. I kindly told them that Cameron was having a hard time and that he needed to go in his room to settle down, and once he did that, then he might be joining them on this lovely day.

Well, this in no way, shape, or form motivated Cameron to calm down, but rather created an even bigger tantrum, this time from his bedroom. And once he finally did settle down, his friends had already left for a bike ride...without him.

Later that day when I was picking something up with only Max and Ella in the car, after arriving home, I noticed how flushed Max looked...and I also noticed how incredibly warm it really did feel in the back of the van.

It was then that I noticed that the temperature controls located in the back of the van were set for last week's temperatures...meaning the temperature knob was turned all the way to the hottest setting. So as I was turning up the vent in the front, producing cool air up front, I was actually cranking up the hot air in the back.

Like I said, lately, I suck as a mom.