I’ll be honest…I’m a bit drained from this beautiful boy. The past few weeks the emotions have spurting out of him and he goes from zero to 10 in seconds. With every emotion. I know this all appropriate developmentally, but there is a fine line you walk as parent between nurturing and having discipline. Unfortunately that line is different with every child. Yes there are simple truths like recognizing why they are feeling they they do and giving them validity to their feelings but I’ll be truthful in saying that doesn’t give them the room to be disrespectful. This age is so hard because they know they are doing something to rile you up but don’t really understand why or consequences.
Liam has been whiny, needy, pushing boundaries (like purposefully dumping his bowl of cereal), not willing to share with his friends, and has started telling me no. The worst is the temper tantrums. I have figured out that he responds well if I pick him up and acknowledge why he is mad then take him out of this situation and either have a quiet talk or a complete time out depending on the situation or where we are.
He is incredibly strong willed. Being that Ryan and I are both that way and we both first born we understand why he does the things he does. That being said, I refuse to be the parent that lets their child control them. Liam now has enough words to communicate 95% of the time but sometimes he doesn’t understand why I don’t want him to do something or that we have to go because it’s nap time. I’m trying out different way to be effective with him but it takes a lot of mental AND physical energy. And of course there is always the fear of ruining them for life, so yeah that’s a lot to consider.
I know this is a phase and I know it will pass but standing your ground, having patience, and being loving all at the same time can be ridiculously hard to do all the time. Prayers are greatly appreciated.
ANYWAY…..here are some happy photos to combat my “mom vent.”
I took this a few weeks back when I painted our door yellow. Ryan was heading to work and it was such a great morning. It has been my background on my phone.
Post nap wavy hair.
One of my all time favorites ^^
