Tuesday 20 January 2009

Bad tempers at dawn

Last night I went to bed determined to have a more positive day with my children today. Yesterday son 1 was rude, aggressive, back chatty and basically obnoxious. Son 2 was whingey, whiney and full to the brim of complaints. I had a long hard chat with myself last night and vowed to start today with a fresh new nag free start.

Ha ha bloody ha.

That goal flew out of the window at roughly 1am in the morning when son 2 lay crying for me in his bed. So I went to him, he wouldn't settle down so I wearily lugged him back to my bed given husband is out of town. Immediately son 1 followed suit. So I had both in bed with me. We have an American super king yet somehow there is never enough room. I've learnt from bitter experience NEVER to put myself in between them as I become a battering ram for pointy elbows and get squeezed between two python-like children until I morph into elasti-girl of the narrowest proportions.

So I slept on one side. That left the two of them able to beat the bejesus out of each other all night. Which they did. They really cranked up the fighting round about 5am, instigated by son 2 in his bid for bed domination. I eventually hauled him unceremoniously out of the bed, planted him on the floor and left him there to wail.

It wasn't a great start to the day frankly.

And it's been fairly vile ever since. I asked if either of them would like porridge for breakfast. Son 2 said an emphatic yes. Son 1 did his usual and refused to answer. So I said he had one last chance to answer before I made it. He yelled: 'NO I DON'T WANT STUPID PORRIDGE!' So we had a few words about his tone and I made porridge for two of us. The minute I put the porridge on the table son 1 fell into his Oscar award-winning performance of how he had actually said yes he wants porridge and that I am stupid and MUST GO MAKE MORE PORRIDGE NOW! At which point he and the bottom step got to know each other a little better.

He has still not stopped moaning about his lack of porridge. While son 2 is studiously avoiding eating his saying it has to cool down (you'd find ice blocks warmer at this point). I've said that his brother can have it if he doesn't eat it. But of course son 2 has stuck his fingers in the porridge trying to scoop the sugar off the top, which means it's been contaminated and his older brother won't touch it now either. This might seem like no biggie, but we had a fairly long and forthright chat yesterday about wasting food, which apparently seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

This is just one incident. One. There've also been similar incidents about milk cup colours, TV channels, what to put on toast, what to take for show and tell, whether the TV should go off, what should go in lunchboxes etc.

My will to live has gone. My good intentions a vague and distant memory. I have 5 odd hours to gather my strength and positive thoughts and start again - although this is foolish as after school moods are even worse than early morning ones.

I should point out that I've typed this sitting on the loo with my laptop perched precariously, as the children don't know I'm here. Well they didn't but son 1 just came in demanding I get off as he needs to wee. I pointed out that we have two other toilets in the house but apparently only this one will do. Must go.

5 comments:

nappy valley girl said...

Oh, this sounds so familiar - it's not just you! Littleboy 1 also went through a stage of NOTHING being right, from the way you spread Marmite on his toast to the colour of milk cups. It used to drive me insane. But he has recently stopped doing it quite so much - this has coincided with a big improvement in his language and communication so we think maybe he was just frustrated before. (I wonder how old your boy is? Ours is 3 and a half.)

And no wonder you are grouchy after a night with 2 little boys in bed! I am so much nicer a Mummy when I've had some sleep - which isn't often at the moment....

Home Office Mum said...

Glad it's not just me nappy valley girl. My two are almost five and 3. The five year old should have been a girl called Mary (as in contrary). The 3 year old is just a little beastie with a vicious temper. His pre-school teacher told me that she's NEVER worked with a child more stubborn. So that's comforting.

Anonymous said...

Oh crud. I hope the afternoon proves to be a bit less stressful. At least in the afternoon it is reasonable to have wine, no?

Welsh Girl said...

OK, so you aren't having the best of days so here, have an award / meme thing that I have given you over at mine. Perhaps it will cheer things up???

Anonymous said...

Somehow I missed this one...

We have a porridge thing too.

Mind if I run this on Thames Valley Mums this week?

BTW -- I think we are in the same line of work on the paid side, must discuss...