I thought I'd share this; a PERFECT example of what my life is like on a daily basis. And as a warning, this just happened, so I'm very frustrated right at this moment (but I can't settle my mind down enough to do anything productive, so I might as well record for prosperity a story that might make me look back five years from now and give thanks to God that this stage is OVER!).
So today was the first day of my Bible study, up at the same church where the boys go to school. They were in different classrooms than their normal rooms for school, but they handled it fairly well. And it was so great for me to see all of those girls again; so now I'll have some separation from the boys on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (which again, I know will be good for all of us). I am still considering finding somewhere for Grant to go on Monday and Friday too. By the way, are there any daycare centers open on Saturdays?
On the first day of each new semester, all of the leaders bring breakfast goodies, and we do a lot of basic introductory stuff. When it was over and I was heading down to pick up the boys, I picked up a styrofoam cup and put a few muffins and sausage balls in it for the boys to share on the way home (apparently I need to stop doing nice things like this for them, because it almost always ends in disaster). I went to Drew's room first, and he was actually playing and having a good time (at least we're making progress in that regard). So he ran over to me and immediately noticed and grabbed the cup full of goodies. He followed me to Grant's room (cup in hand), and of course Grant immediately noticed the cup of goodies too. He asked if he could have a cup like Drew's, which was out of the question because all of the food would now be gone anyway, and I was NOT going to go back up to the third floor just to appease him. I was trying to just get out the door and deal with the situation once we got away from the mass of people surrounding us at the moment (this was 12pm, when all of the normal preschool kids are getting picked up too).
But no, Grant kept freaking out about wanting to have a cup like Drew's. And after all, I got the snacks for both of them, right? So I grabbed the cup from Drew, took out a muffin and handed it to Grant, hoping to just get out the door and away from everyone before a fit ensued. There was still plenty of food in the cup when I handed it back to Drew. But it wasn't good enough.....Drew threw the cup across the hallway, laid down on the floor and started screaming. Then he stood up and tried grabbing the muffin back from Grant, which led to a lot of hitting and screaming between the two of them. It was embarrassing and even more frustrating, because this is the kind of thing I deal with ALL THE TIME at home. So I just never get a break from it. I'd just had a three-hour break from them, and all I wanted to do was march them right back to their classrooms and leave them there until sometime in December.
Today has been especially hard anyway because I have a cold and I'm just not feeling great, plus the boys were both up at 6:15am, playing in the bathroom while Dean was in the shower. Grant responded disrespectfully when Dean told him he couldn't plug in the space heater (he claimed he was cold, even though it was 77 or 78 degrees upstairs). With Grant, we're at our wit's end because we cannot correct him AT ALL (no matter what tone we use) without him going berserk. He is just not one of those kids you can pull aside, tell him what he's doing wrong and stick him in time-out for a few minutes. No matter how patient and friendly a tone we take with him, he just loses it almost every time. And if we immediately react with a harsh tone, his reaction is even worse. So we have no idea what to do. But I have warned him that he's not going to be able to stay at our house during the day if he keeps acting like this. There's no way I'm going to be able to handle a new baby when he's acting this way.
So there. I don't think I've ranted about my kids (at least spent an entire post on it) for a few months, so I guess it was about time! Anybody out there who has raised an extremely strong-willed child (or two little ones who seem to fight over everything), I would be glad to hear advice!
January Lessons
10 years ago
2 comments:
Sorry to hear that life has been a bit stressful for you. As far as a daycare that is open on Saturdays, we use Gimme A Break. It is an hourly daycare that is open weekdays until 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 2 a.m. It is a nice option to have for a weekend date, shopping, or just a break from the kids.
My big boys fight all the time too and can hardly be left alone together at all. When we walk out of a room without them we always count the seconds until we hear a scream from one of them, usually because of being hit by something! When Andrew was born we had Matthew in pre-school 5 full days (8:30-3:30) and Joshua was enrolled in MDO (9-2) for two days a week. Within a month of dealing with just Andrew and Joshua during most week days, we found another MDO that would put Joshua in MDO for a total of four days a week (that was the best we could do!). It was hard to get them up, ready and to/from "school", but OH SO WORTH IT while they were happily playing and learning!!!
Derek's always said that someone needs to invent "nightcare" to go with "daycare". Then there would be some where to send them 24 hrs a day when things got really bad!
I totally feel your pain, and highly recommend getting more help/sending them both to "school" as much as possible or whatever you can plan for ahead of time to keep them busy (i.e. before the baby comes!). We have always thought that it's better for our boys to be a little bit uncomfortable in a wonderful learning environment than for them to get yelled at all day because they're bored and acting awful!
It does get better, but you do have to help things along a bit! :)
Email me if you'd like to vent even more!
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