For the last few days, I’ve been working on an extensive review of the latest parenting book I checked out from the library.<\/p>\n
But now I feel like posting it would be one big farce.\u00c2\u00a0 Today has been an awful parenting day, and I’m just completely overwhelmed with parenting.\u00c2\u00a0 Who am I to be posting tips on parenting?!\u00c2\u00a0 So I’m not going to.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going to vent and ramble grumpily instead.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I feel like it.\u00c2\u00a0 Feel free to stop reading now if you don’t want to listen to whining.\u00c2\u00a0 Lots and lots of whining.<\/p>\n
Finley has been sick since Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not really sure what’s wrong exactly.\u00c2\u00a0 On Sunday he complained that his head hurt, had a fever, and was laying around all day.\u00c2\u00a0 It takes a lot to keep him down.\u00c2\u00a0 He had a fever of 101 yesterday, and was still bouncing off the walls.\u00c2\u00a0 He also threw up once on Sunday (all of his special formula and everything else consumed in the last 10+ hours… thanks, gastroparesis<\/a>!).\u00c2\u00a0 All over my most favorite dry clean only<\/em> fur blanket from Pottery Barn<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I washed it despite the dry clean only warning, multiple times, desperate to get the vomit stench out, but no such luck.\u00c2\u00a0 Into the trash it went.<\/p>\n Today The Littlest Apple stayed home from Mother’s Day Out because he still has a fever.\u00c2\u00a0 But other than making him a little extra cranky and whiny, he isn’t really acting sick.\u00c2\u00a0 And I may have a touch of whatever he has.\u00c2\u00a0 I really could have used that 5 hours to myself today.<\/p>\n He’s gotten up at 5:30 in the morning for the last 2 days.\u00c2\u00a0 Ugh!\u00c2\u00a0 Those days I take naps when he takes his nap, just to make it through the day.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise I’m completely useless by dinner time at 7:15.<\/p>\n We’ve totally regressed in potty training.\u00c2\u00a0 Accidents left and right.\u00c2\u00a0 3 or 4 a DAY, which is more than he had when we began potty training.\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully the last 2 days have been better, but it has been extremely frustrating for the last 2 weeks.<\/p>\n Lots of discipline issues too.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not listening.\u00c2\u00a0 One of my biggest pet peeves is not being heard and having to repeat myself, and this alone is a major hurdle for me as a parent.\u00c2\u00a0 He also runs away from us when we want him to do something (take medicine, get dressed, etc).\u00c2\u00a0 He’s started this nails-on-a-chalkboard shrieking thing in response to anything he doesn’t like, including but not limited to getting dressed, going to the potty, eating dinner, putting away toys, me touching\/moving his toys, turning off the TV, the list goes on and on.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re trying hard to remind him to use his words, but it is a constant battle.<\/p>\n The Picky Apple and I have been trying all kinds of different approaches for various parenting issues, and nothing is really working.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m feeling very helpless.\u00c2\u00a0 Timeout DEFINITELY isn’t working for us.\u00c2\u00a0 Time IN works on occasion, but that takes some real patience which I seem to be lacking.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought a timer to use, and that works occasionally: “It’s time to go inside when the timer goes off in 2 minutes, okay?”\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes I even let him pick the length of time.\u00c2\u00a0 There is usually still lots of screaming.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve tried saying what he CAN do instead of what he can’t, but I still find myself saying NO STOP DON’T way too often.\u00c2\u00a0 And he doesn’t listen to any<\/em> of it.<\/p>\n I’m really struggling.\u00c2\u00a0 And feeling like a bit of failure.\u00c2\u00a0 I only have ONE child.\u00c2\u00a0 I have friends with 2 and 3 kids who seem to be managing multiple kids in addition to work, school, and other big life changes just fine.\u00c2\u00a0 The Picky Apple and I are BOTH feeling like we can’t handle any more children right now.\u00c2\u00a0 The “maybe one?”<\/a> sentiment has turned in to “definitely only one!”\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t even handle the one we’ve got!<\/p>\n Before kids, I never thought I had a bad temper.\u00c2\u00a0 I always saw myself as patient and kind, with the occasional bad day and hissy fit.\u00c2\u00a0 Since The Littlest Apple was born, I’ve developed a temper that I’m always struggling to keep in check.\u00c2\u00a0 (Gee, I wonder where The Littlest Apple gets HIS temper from?!)\u00c2\u00a0 And when I fail to keep it in check (like today), it isn’t pretty.\u00c2\u00a0 I scream, then I feel guilty for screaming, promise myself I won’t do that again.\u00c2\u00a0 But then it happens again.\u00c2\u00a0 And again<\/em>.<\/p>\n