The straw that broke the arrow.....

So several weeks ago, I accomplished one of my not so great parenting moments.  I've talked about the stress levels in our house lately and SK has a really bad habit of picking stickers off of toys or taking her sister's baby toys.  It was one evening after work and Big Daddy was still at work.  I was trying to cook dinner, do dishes, feed the baby, and somehow manage to watch SK.  I had told her repeatedly to leave her sister's toys alone. She especially has a bad habit of peeling the decorative stickers off of her sisters toys.  I heard her small voice call out..."Mommy?  I accidentally did something bad." (which is never really an accident)
I went over to the couch and she had peeled off the stickers of one of her sisters toys...AGAIN.  Maybe it was exhaustion or maybe temporary insanity, but in my split second decision of ineedtoteachheralessonrightnow.....I scanned the room for one of her toys to try and prove a point.  I scanned the floor and there was an arrow to her princess bow and arrow.  Quickly, I say to myself, "I can bend that and show her how it feels to have people mess up her things".  Now keep in mine, I was thinking I'll bend it to show her and then bend it back.  And of course this entire conversation is happening in maybe 3 seconds flat in my head.  I grab the arrow.  I hold it up in front of her and I bend it while saying to her, "do you like it when I mess up your stuff??"  Sheer terror comes across her face followed by a blood curdling scream...."YOU BENT MY PRINCESS ARROW AND I'LL NEVER HAVE IT AGAIN...." Tears are streaming down her face and she's screaming screams that I'm sure the neighbors in the other culdesac can hear.  I ask her firmly, "how do you like it when I mess with your toys?  Do you like it???"  She's still screaming and yelling saying "YOU RUINED EVERYTHING AND THAT WAS FOR MY BIRTHDAY...NOT YOURS".  I again explain it is not nice to mess with other peoples toys and explain that we don't like it when she peels stickers off of our things.  I finally calm her down and realize that in my rage, I managed to not just bend the plastic arrow....no, my friends, I broke it in half.  &#$%.....now what am I going to do??  Of course she realizes that in fact I broke it, not bent it....again come the screams and wails of a dramatic 4 year old.  So I scramble to find the scissors, cut the sharp edges, grab some packing tape...a few cuts here and there, and voila...the arrow is in one piece again.  I proudly show it to her saying, "see, mommy fixed it!" and she replies, "mommy you are so mean...you broke my arrow and it's never the same ever again".  I tried my best to explain the lesson of how it felt for her when I broke her things and how it's not nice to do that to her sisters toys.  Eventually she did in fact, calm down...but I was left alone in my mom guilt feeling like I was the worst mom in the world for breaking the arrow because lets face it...she will never forget this day.  But the good news is that since then, she hasn't peeled any stickers off any toys.

If you look closely, you can see my tape to correct the broken arrow.