The scream-y cry-y thing...

I just read this post from Hot Cross Mum, a wonderful writer who's blog I love.  She talks about her 'big issue'.  That thing that is your parenting nemesis.  For her it's mealtimes.  I thought this was such a brilliant summation of how that one thing can really break you, I wanted to share mine.

Purely by way of off loading.  Feel free to share yours too.

For me it's the scream-that-escalates-quickly-into-uncontrollable-tears.

The toddler does this pretty much every day, and on the days I am with her it seems fairly endless.  We have respite, and depending on how much sleep she's had, what she's eaten etc we have long periods of remission, but then it will come up again.

It's normally prefaced by:

"No not yet!" in response to something like "it's bedtime now" or "let's go in the garden" or "come on let's get in the car"

Within seconds we have a full scale drama on our hands.  Proper Oscar winning stuff.  I just KNOW she will be an actress.  (And when she is you can say you knew her as a little screaming toddler.)  I'm making her sound much worse than she is for dramatic effect (now you know where she gets it from), she's adorable, but this screaming thing is really getting to me.

It's hard to describe how it makes me feel.  A mix of desperate pity as I see her crying and wishing there was a way I could help her.  Frustration that I didn't handle the situation better to avoid it. Anxiety that it will never bloody end.  And cold hard fear that she will never grow out of it and I'll have a stroppy little madam on my hands for ever and ever.  Arghhhhh!  

I have signed up to a course called 'How to talk so kids will listen'.  This for me, right now, is the great white hope.  I'm doing it with a couple of friends who also have challenging toddlers (don't we all?).  So if I learn anything I'll be sure to post it here.

And by the way, if anyone has any words of wisdom,  I'm very receptive!

xx