Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I'm Frustrated Too, Kid!

I think I should say that I am NOT an alchy in case my last post hinted at that. But some days are worse than others.

Today I feel like a bad mom. My daughter (28 months) woke up at 5am being defiant, and not wanting to go back to sleep. I got so frustrated with her her and yelling and whining that I wanted to strangle her (figure of speech so don't worry). She was crying and sobbing that she didn't want this or that and I almost lost it. I was doing all I could to keep her from waking up her dad and her little sibling. It didn't work.

Once she did wake up for the day, she had about 5 time outs in the first 5 minutes for telling me things like:
No I don't want to!
NOOOOOOOOO!
NOT NOW!
I don't need it anymore!! (Just her version of saying no)

I watched the vein in her neck bulge out while her face got BRIGHT RED from frustration. Over what you ask? Stickers. Yes, people Princess stickers. And then marker and then lunch and then her cup. The yellow one, not the green one that I picked.

Then she fell down and needed me to kiss her owie and she turned back into my sweet little girl. We cuddled for a few minutes and then she patted my head. It made all the drama in the morning worth it.

Why all the anger? Is this something that we are teaching her? We are very calm and easygoing parents and spouses. We don't yell. Where is she learning this? And when will it end? I give her some slack because she is a baby still. What happens when she is a teenager and knows darn well she is being defiant and unreasonable?

1 comments:

Constance the Super said...

I don't know much about the little ones, but I do spend lots of time with teenagers. I can tell which ones have never been told no, were never put in time out because of their meltdown over stickers, etc. I doubt that helps, but you're laying the groundwork and hopefully that will make adolescence a little easier on everyone.