What The Crazy Lady Taught Me

Woes of Renting
We live in a cute little neighborhood right now.  That happens to have been taken over by investors who keep buying the houses and renting them out.  Not to classify renters as any one thing (considering we are currently renting and have been for almost 4 years) but this causes a slight problem, which is transition.  When you rent, you are much less rooted to the area.  There are several houses that are rentals and so we see a lot of movement.

Rated X Movie
One such house is kiddy corner to us.  A few weeks ago our very quiet and nice neighbors moved out.  Shortly following, some new, less quiet and less nice neighbors moved in.  They did not lack pizazz!  On day one she was outside screaming obscenities like an X rated movie (I am assuming here since I've never actually seen a rated X movie) at her boyfriend? husband? brother? ex? who knows.  Anyway, my children were huddled in the corner of the room cowering in fear that we were being attacked.  I'm not going to lie; I wasn't sure if I needed to call the police because someone was being murdered outside our front door.  It was Straight Outta Compton.

DRUGS?
As the days went by the yelling, screaming, glass throwing, obscene amounts of swearing, car kicking, craziness continued.  I'm not going to lie, it just started becoming normal.  Oh, it's just the new neighbor outside again.  Going BERZERK again.  I was pretty convinced she was either on drugs or, maybe she needs some drugs, and a lot of therapy.

Thank The Kids
You're probably wondering what I was thinking when I came up with the title, "What could this person have taught me?" you may be asking yourself.    Well for one, it taught me how insane you look when you yell at people.  I mean you look nutso.  Nobody looks at the yell-er and thinks the yell-ee is very deserving of this yelling they are getting.  Nope, they think, jees, that yell-er is so mean and onery and crazy.  If you're wondering how I came to this realization, you can thank my kids.  When I would start to get wound up and raise my voice for them to please pick up the 7 towels strewn across their bedroom floor they would say, "You sound just like our new neighbor."
Lol.  Gotta love kids.  Did I really sound like our new neighbor?  No, I was not screaming obscenities or throwing glass at my children.  But I realized that I also wasn't accomplishing anything by getting so frazzled by them.  I was just looking insane and scaring my kids by yelling so much.

An Ugly Cycle
Why did I yell?  Because it worked.  As soon as I got peeved enough everyone jumped on the clean-the-house-wagon and we finally got it done, and in record time.  Was it a bad experience?  You betcha!  Was I exhausted and guilt ridden?  You know it.  But I honestly felt like, this is the only way. It's the only way to get them to work hard for me.  But what I've realized over time and research is.  I've trained my kids to wait until I get loud before they hop to it.  It's not a good thing.

What Now?
Well I've jumped on the stop yelling train.  I just can't handle the thought that I look even remotely, on any level, close to how my new neighbor looks.  I REFUSE.  So I've drastically cut the yelling down.  I'm on a new mission.  First thing I did was apologize to my kids.  I mean, who wants to be yelled at all the time?  Then I told them, "guys, I'm not perfect but I want to be better, and I need your help".  I feel like I've been doing so much better.  I have reigned my little spit fire temper in so much and I feel so much better about myself.  Have I relapsed?  Yes.  But I'm not giving up!

HALLELUJAH
Oh and in case you're wondering.  Crazy lady moved out (HALLELUJAH) and we are moving too.

I NEED EMOJIS
 (p.s, does anyone else feel like they can't properly communicate without emojis?  I'm being for real here)

COMPARISON SOMETIMES IS THE DELIVERER OF JOY
Have a great day feeling like an awesome person because you didn't kick the windows out of your own car today in a blind rage.



XOXO,
Kell