I must be an idiot!

I am a 56 year old woman. I am experienced. I am educated. I am not “well read” but I have read a book or two. I am in close contact with intelligent women. I teach six year olds and a large part of our curriculum is to give children language and tools to stand up to aggressive or assertive children who intimidate them. I have words at my disposal, I have skills, I have perspective and I have experience.

And yet, I am being bullied by my 22 year-old daughter.

And I am sick of it.

Tonight, I rehearsed things to say to her the next time she is being icky, aggressive or exceptionally critical.

I can start with the basic:

“STOP IT” or “GET OUT OF HERE!”

The natural follow up to this is:

“I DON’T’ LIKE IT WHEN YOU SPEAK TO ME THIS WAY.”

Then I can hit her with:

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”

and the classic

“ARE YOU THE BOSS OF ME?”

If all of these fails, I’ll counter with,

“YOU ARE NOT INVITED TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY,”

a sure heart piercer!