Life With a Drama Queen

I called my mother yesterday, and apologized for being such a drama queen as a child. "Why, you weren't a dram...." she said, and stopped talking, as she quickly realized that it was true. I was a huge worry wart, and maybe a bit indulged as the baby, and the "good kid" of the family, so I can recall many instances of over the top hissy fits I threw. I worried about everything, and would get myself worked up quite easily. " A Tempest in a Teapot" was a phrase my mother often called me, as she would stand shaking her head with an exasperated expression on her face. I also learned how to use tears and a dramatic turn of phrase to get attention-particularly from my Dad-when things didn't go my way. Other than my dramatic, anxious ways, I WAS a pretty good kid, so my parents mostly put up with my theatrics. And my husband mostly ignores my theatrics, when they rear their prissy little head (heads?) today. Wait.... did I really just admit that?

Anyhow, you know what they say about payback, being a b....well, you know. That's right. I am the mother of a 9 year old girl with some dramatic tendencies of her own. She wants to be a movie star-she doesn't want to be in drama class in high school, she informed us not long ago; she just wants to go straight to being a movie star. When we finally convinced her that was nearly impossible, she asked us to send her to acting school in New York or Paris. Um....hello? I don't think so, dear. We went to the movies this past weekend, and saw the movie The Spy Next Door. Seriously, the acting in this movie was so bad, that in comparison, the actors of The Dukes of Hazard should have won Emmies. Riley thought it was breathtakingly wonderful. She leaned over to me during the movie and confided, "Oh, Mom! This is just so fabulous! When the actors are happy, I'm happy! When they're sad, I feel sad. When they are angry, I'm angry with them. This is an amazing movie!"

This same future star has an unreasonable fear of all things medical. She had to have a finger prick once a couple of years ago to test her iron levels-really not a big deal, right? Wrong. She had to have chest x-rays taken last year-not painful or anything, just stand there and have your picture taken, right? Ummm.....no. She still has nightmares over the very benign experience. Let's not even talk about when she has to have blood drawn or shots. *shudder* When her little brother had to get stitches in his head (for the first time), she had trouble sleeping for months afterward, because she kept thinking about the medical equipment she saw in the hallways at the immediate care, even after we explained the harmless purpose of each item. Yesterday, she had to go to the Dentist to have impressions made of her teeth, so she can have a retainer made. Of course, she was a nervous wreck. She sat down in the hygienist's chair, sighed loudly, and said "WHY do these kinds of things always have to happen to ME?" Just wait until she has to go to the Gynocologist someday.

She's also learned how turning on the waterworks every now and then can sometimes change Daddy's mind when he's told her no about something. My husband thinks I'm mean, because I ignore her when she does this, but I'm not mean, I just know what she's doing! I did it first, and by golly, I did it better! But please, pray for me-the teen years are coming, and I'm scared!