It always happens right, there’s a good cop and a bad cop. Brian lets a lot more things slide or just doesn’t get as bothered as I do about certain things. No one told me I had to be the bad cop, I just always find myself wanting to teach McKenzie a lesson.
Lately, I find myself yelling more than usual. Almost every day, I am yelling. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m home with McKenzie all the time now, or if she is just at the age where she is testing the shit out of my patience. Some days, I don’t even have patience. I even hear myself say “I have no patience for this today” as she is looking back at me smiling, most likely because she has no idea what I am talking about. Why do I put so much pressure on her to always do exactly as I say? As a 2 year old – why on earth would she always do everything exactly as I say or ask? Why am I even asking so much of her? She use to love cleaning up her toys, wouldn’t let anyone else help her. Now, I beg her to help me clean up. 2 time outs later, my overtired 2 year old wants nothing to do with me or cleaning up. Brushing teeth before bed, or getting ready for bed in general – absolute nightmare. She sees that I get frustrated and says “you OK Mama? You happy?” this makes me want to cry. She sees how frustrated I am, almost telling me to relax but in the sweetest way possible.
I started writing this post a month ago, literally early November. It’s safe to say she was going through a phase. I’ve had a lot going on recently and my hands have been full to say the least with my little 2.5 year old. A few things I worked on to get us through this phase
- Prepping her with what’s to come. “We will eat lunch first, then we can play for a little. Then we will go pee pee and lay down and read a book before your nap”.
- After dinner, I either bathe her or put her PJ’s on to avoid doing this when she is tired.
- If I see she is overtired, lower my expectations. Even walk away if I need to.
- Since McKenzie has been in her big girl bed, (I’ll do another post on this) she is now letting Brian put her to bed. LIFE CHANGING.
Some other things I need to work on for myself to lower my stress include waking up before McKenzie wakes up so I can wake up to peace. Working out more, since it’s been cold out I have had a total mood change about working out. Combine all of these things with this phase and you just have an unnecessary stressed environment. I didn’t choose to be the bad cop, but here I am and she is well aware that I’ll be the one to yell at her. We are well into terrible two’s, maybe I can teach myself to embrace and hopefully calm down a bit as we go through these phases.
Please leave a comment here or on my instagram if you are feeling me on this. Or if you have felt this way at some point and have overcome it? Was this a month or 2 phase that you went through? Did your child go through this a few times? SOS
The Redheaded Mom 