Terrible Twos

[Emily0505]

Cam loves the Gruffalo! He swings from watching proper kiddies cartoons to rather grown up stuff.

He's currently watching a programme by Sir David Attenborough on the Natural History Museum. It's got dinosaurs and skeletons in it so therefore he's obsessed!!

XX

 

[CARNAT22]

We watch crap too.... we both love Cars 2 (I have a crush on Mater lol)

X

 

[Rooster30]

Nooo Mater is so annoying! Though maybe that's because Cars 2 makes a regular appearance on our TV too! That or the golf channel is my son's preference.

 

[mrswoody]

The terrible twos is a horrible time to try and muddle through with a toddler and a new baby.
My dd is 2.5yrs and dd2 is 6 months!

I've found that Madison will whine and whine and whine some days and it's drives me insane!
I have inforced "time out" (this is what they do at nursery) and it is hit and miss.

She has recently taken to telling me to "shut up" and slaps me so it's very trying at the moment. I have chosen to ignore this in the hope she realises I'm not going to react to it.
My Oh is away with work at the moment and is not due back until June and she can totally pick up on the days I am missing him because she plays up!

x

 

[Ella1979]

Some of the behaviour may be because you're pregnant and tired, Rooster. Toddlers do seem to know when you're tired and play up more. My daughter did similar and now I have two toddlers, who are jealous of each other, so if I'm cuddling one the other will launch themselves at me too!!!

I found the best thing to do with tantrums is to ignore them. I say something like "mummy doesn't play with loud, shouty children, I'm going to have fun with this colouring book (or whatever)" and then start doing something more interesting. My parents have also done similar when my daughter was tantrum-ing, they said to my son "isn't it noisy in here? shall we go in the other room and play?" and moved into the other room. My daughter soon stopped as she wanted to be where the fun was!

I haven't found naughty steps/corner to work at all. I just get "I'm calm now mummy" or a reasonably well constructed argument (for a 3 year old) why she shouldn't be there. My son has recently started tantrums (17 months old!) and will back up to a wall and hit his head on it. If he won't stop screaming, I take him upstairs to his room and leave him to calm himself down somewhere I know is safe.

 

[Rooster30]

Thanks for the advice and I'm definitely starting to ignore him a bit more when he plays up. I'm trying to get my OH to stop responding too. I'm doing my best to just enjoy my son, which I do most of the time anyway. With 9 days till due date I'm aware that all to soon we'll both be without our time together.

For the past couple of days he has calmed down somewhat and the threat of naughty corner has been enough for him to do as he's told. I've worked on myself too - inwardly counting to three myself and picking my battles more carefully and giving him plenty more positives than negatives.

I'm so proud of him in so many ways and just don't like getting angry with him. I had PND for the first year of his life as he was such a difficult baby, he had colic, didn't settle for sleep, he hated baths and car journeys, wouldn't be apart from me for more than a second. We struggled basically and I lost out on a year of loving and enjoying him - I don't want to go back to that, I want to savour every moment. I feel we have come so far since those awful days that I don't want to be getting stressed over Terrible Twos, I need to learn how to deal with the tantrums and to continue to enjoy my son, because he is so fab in so many ways.

 

[LaceyKeo]

Rooster, it sounds like you're making some great progress.

I'm sure you're more than well aware that every step in parenting is a learning curve, and sadly, not one that often gets mastered overnight, but it definitely sounds like you're on the right track.

Best of luck hon xx

 

[littlemonkey]

Aw Rooster I can really sympathise, I always think of the early months with my son as dark days cos of my depression. I know what you mean about not enjoying the time with them when they're acting up and I do feel guilty about it. I think last week we were having a bad week, LO and I were both poorly. Now we're on the mend I feel like he's not as stroppy and I'm less short with him. I am glad he will be going back to the childminders this week as well so I can get a rest. I do panic though about what life will be like once baby is here and how I keep him entertained all day!