Sunday, November 10, 2013

Terrible three's

I have really been struggling with Emily lately. She has been SO WHINY and it's DRIVING ME NUTS! And I don't know what to do about it. I try to think of fun things to do and fun places to go, but she just whines about them. Seriously, it's like pulling teeth to get her to leave the house.

Also, when people come over, she is so clingy. She won't play with other kids, she just climbs all over me when I'm trying to talk to whoever is over. And she cries every time I try to take her anywhere. In nursery, she sits by herself in a corner and won't play with the other kids.

She is also mean to Zach. She takes stuff from him all the time, pushes him over, hits him, bites him, etc.

She has also started saying she is a baby and crawls around and wants to eat in the high chair and wants me to feed her and just grunts and points at things and won't talk. She wants to be carried everywhere and wants to sit in the baby seat in the shopping carts. I cannot handle this. I can't carry around 2 kids, and I can't put Zach in the back of the cart.

What am I doing wrong? I try to do fun activities and spend one-on-one time with her and give her enough attention, but I just cannot do that 24/7. I'm exhausted. My "kid-brain lobe" is burnt out. I don't know what to do, but I can't keep this up.

3 comments:

Beth said...

As far as playing by herself in nursery, she might be more of an introvert, and like that type of play. Finn does that too, and Roy explained that for him I when he's around other kids and not so familure places it's natural for introverts to become more secluded. As far as needing attention (I think most moms of multiple kids deals with this) you just do your best. I had a friend recently tell me that she taught her kids to, instead of whine or act out, to tell her they needed attention. I haven't really tackled that yet, but it sounded like it worked for her. Mostly I would just try to teach that that behavior is not ok, because you can only do fun activities or pay one-on-one attention for so much of the day...the rest they need to deal with, and that is just reality. This may be total crap to you, but just some thoughts I had. Hang in there, and don't beat yourself up for the fact that you have a completely normal toddler! I feel the same about my whiney boy lots of days too.

Melissa said...

It sounds like she is jealous of Zac and the attention that he requires. Does she need more daddy attention? I find that when Lily has her fill of one on one daddy time she is much better. She could careless about me most of the time and the fun things I plan, its the daddy time she craves and needs to satsify her attention needs. Just a thought.

Hayley said...

personally, i have found 3 to be way more difficult than 2. and i think it sounds completely normal. it is not an easy stage of life. don't beat yourself up.

we tell mikey we can't hear him when he's whining or talking in a baby voice... he self corrects - starts talking normal again. in the beginning we said, "you need to speak in your normal voice," but not we don't. he knows. (i think mikey is talking like a baby because his preschool teacher, and don't get me wrong - we love her!!!- has a babyish voice, not cause we baby talk henry so much. it drives me nuts.