The *happy sigh* from last post is over. It's so over. It ran out the door as soon as it possibly could. It laughed at me on the way out, even.
Why's that, you might be wondering?
Well. I can answer that with a number.
7,897.2.
That's the number of tantrums Anna has had today. The last one - and the worst one - was just a few minutes ago. Great way to end the day.
I would love to say I'm a perfect Mom who did everything right. But I lost my cool, yelled at her, and (of course) made it worse. Sigh... (And now I have intense amounts of Mama guilt. Ugh. Worst type of guilt ever.)
Naturally, the evening got even better when I happened to come across an article that explains why toddlers have tantrums and what NOT to do. (Lose your cool and yell at them? Yeah, don't do that. That makes them feel rejected and awful and it's not their fault and yeah, you suck, Mom.)
So that's my day and evening.
If I weren't crazy and preparing to do this all over again, I would SO be running for a glass of wine right now.
*Tired sigh*
Oh my I feel for ya. I was officially the worst mom to G when I was preggers with K. I was sooo exhausted and therefore crazy and short fused. Don't worry...we all do it. And anyone who says they don't lose it with their kids is a total liar! Every night when I go to bed I replay all of the interactions I had with my kids and how I could've....should've...done better. Parenting sucks. Big hugs!
ReplyDeleteColleen is right. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be perfect? The important thing is - you want to be perfect, so Anna is pretty lucky :) And no one wants to admit to losing their cool with a screaming little toddler, and I'm ashamed to admit that I basically threw you in your crib and went outside and sat on the curb and cried when you were having a meltdown that I couldn't do anything about! And look how you turned out? Perfection :)
ReplyDeleteI've lost my cool too many times to count. And like Colleen above, was bananas when pregnant with my second and yelled at Liam more than ever. And lo and behold, they've both managed to turn out fairly well so far. No one is perfect. There is no way that there is one person that has never snapped at or yelled at their toddler after spending a whole day listening to whining or screaming.
ReplyDeleteLiam was a nightmare at Anna's age. I could barely take him out of the house without some sort of huge meltdown. It does get better though once they start communicating a bit better. And then they move on to something else..
Kim
I had "issues" when I was pregnant the second time too! Poor Ange! Of course, the blinkety hormones, only made things worse! Guilt, thy name is "Mother"!!
ReplyDeleteAunt S.