Toddlers. Whew. What funny little creatures. There are times where my heart could burst wide open for the amount of love that I feel for my girl. But, there are also times (while the love is clearly still there) when I want to throw my hands up in exasperation and scream.
Collins is and can be the sweetest little thing on Earth. So much of the time she is loving and caring and wants hugs and kisses and holding. She’s the first to say “bless you mama” or “love you mama” or she’ll randomly just come up and hug my leg. Little moments like this just MELT MY HEART. We have so much fun together and although I hate her growing up so fast, I love being able to really talk to her now and love how much more she understands. She loves to sing and count and dance and ride her tricycle; she loves “my pony”, “gof” cart rides, ice cream, her sussie and puppy, “chocate”, (can you tell she inherited my love of sweets?) and dora boots. She’s becoming so FULL of personality it makes my heart sing. I absolutely love when we are going down steps and she says “mama wait” or “hold” because normally she is so independent and wants to do it herself. Or the times she will come cuddle with Mikey and I in bed in the mornings…those are some of my favorite. Sweetest boo in all the land during those moments. Just last night we had a “family date night” because Mikey will be out of town this weekend…the wait was LONG and Collins was an angel. We walked around the docks looking at the boats, the ducks and all the people. We played on the steps and tried our best to keep her occupied during our hour wait for dinner. She did SO good. She was so sweet and never got ill or whined once.
BUT, on the other hand….the whining and independent streak and the “I want what I want when I want it” attitude are NO fun. She sometimes will start crying immediately if she doesn’t get her way or I won’t let her hold/do something. I CANNOT give into this….but it hurts my heart to see her upset over it. Toddlers just don’t get it yet and the reasoning skills aren’t quite there. Sometimes she’ll start crying/whining over something before she has even asked about it and it drives me nuts. I know this is all just a phase, but I’m terrified of raising a bratty, whiny kid so I think about it a lot. Maybe I need to invest in a parenting book? Or do you just ride the toddler storm and hope and pray that it passes? I try and reinforce good behavior and try not to give in to her “demands” very much. As much as I LOVE that girl…. I’m a firm believer that a child does NOT rule the roost…the child should not “rule” the family. It’s easy sometimes to let the kid “take charge” and just do as they want (less meltdowns, etc.) but I know that’s not teaching them anything. I just pray that I can find that happy medium of discipline/firm parenting and loving/fun parenting.
How do you find that balance?
I am trying to figure this out as well! So nice to read this post that echoes my thoughts exactly!! Such a roller coaster...
ReplyDeleteI hope you are feeling well!!
I have no idea but here lately, hoooooly cow the whining! It has got to stop. Driving me nuts. It's like a light switch, like you say. One minute he's "I love you mama" (my heart melted) then next minute whining non stop about the silliest things (my nerves shot). It's not only his attitude that's changing in a split second , but mine! LOL Hopefully they'll grow out of these phase too or either I need a parenting book as well. Eesh.
ReplyDeleteSame thing happening at our house! The whining/crying drives me nuts! It's amazing how toddlers can switch it on and off just like that :)
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, this is what I have in my future? HAHA. My SIL swears by saying "use your words" when my nieces whine. Seems to work for them. Hope y'all are feeling better!
ReplyDeleteI used to work as a nanny for 15 years, and Collins sounds totally normal. And I think you're handling it really well. One thing that helped me when the kids were whining was to say, "I can't understand you when you talk like that. I bet I would be able to understand you better if you use your regular voice." That didn't eliminate the whining (cause it's mostly just a phase that passes as soon as they get older and can communicate better) but it did reduce the whining a lot. Good luck!
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