It would appear that Phoebe inherited my flair for the guilt trip.

A few weeks ago, while I was in the midst of finals (having been dealt the crushing blow by a prof that I was in danger of failing a class from what turned out to be a mess of misunderstandings), and dealing with the end of year kid-school stuff, including a preschool graduation, dance recital preparation, and Phoebe's angst over leaving her one-and-thusfar-only school for a new one, Phoebe informed me that I "never" pay her enough attention, and that I "never" snuggle her, and I "never" do anything fun with her. In the meantime she's got all her own activities, and "snuggle time" is defined entirely by her schedule and sense of need. I have to remember the 8 year old world is very egocentric.

Yet, at the time, all I'm thinking is "please God (or Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whoever you believe in) let me survive the next week and a half, and I'll be able to give this girl the attention she's needing".

Now, school has been out for a week, and I worked my arse off, barely sleeping for many nights in a row to time the completion of my finals with her last day of school, and we've spent EVERY day together. No joke, no more than an hour apart each day (gym, that sort of thing). Yesterday we went to the local amusement park together, just the two of us, we held hands, we snuggled, we went in the wave pool, on rides...

And tonight, I'm hearing again about how I never snuggle her.

Methinks the girl is losing her imagination. I let her play a bit too much computer today - and I REALLY think that's it. When she plays less on the computer, she remembers how to use her imagination, and plays well with her sisters, etc etc. When she has too much computer time, that all goes to hell.

So which should I feel more guilty for? Not snuggling her while I finally got to eat dinner (which was when she ultimately demanded it and started giving me a hard time for not complying with her every need), or for letting her play too much computer which ultimately resulted in her complete breakdown? And I thought the Terrible Two's were hard.