Big Kids (aka adults) striving to lead the little kids!

This morning after I placed Hallie in time-out for excessive whining, I had a talk with her and explained that now that she is 4 years old, she is getting big enough to talk to me about how she feels instead of crying or hollering.  I proceeded to give her examples of how she can nicely explain to me how she feels when she is sad or upset.  At the end of my little spill, she looks at me and in a rather matter-of-fact tone reminds me that Kailan (who will be 15 next month), still cries when I get mad at her!  I'm the mom - which supposedly constitutes me as much older and wiser and when I'm upset I unfortunately find myself raising my voice rather than nicely explaining why they (usually the children) are causing me to feel upset. It's so hard to raise these children when you often feel so hypocritical! 

As our conversation continued into an entirely new subject, she asked me if she was going to die when she was really old.  I basically told her that would be the best time when she said, "But you're very old and you haven't died!" She quickly followed it with "because you're my mommy!" Perspective!!