We completely went overboard with our kids this year for Christmas. I have 2 girls, 3 years and 10 months. Obviously, our 10 month old doesn't give a shit about opening presents. We got her a few new toys and books since she's moving into toddlerhood. Our true lack of parenting skills was more so clear in our toddler. As a three year old, this was her first Christmas which she would likely remember and she showed way more interest in the excitement of the Holiday. As parents, we should have taken this process in her development and begun molding her brain to the reality that Christmas isn't about the number of gifts you get and to appreciate what you have etc. Well, we failed TERRIBLY at delivering that message to her. Terribly.I should have known when she started opening books yesterday Morning and throwing them down on the ground that Christmas Day was going to be rough for us. She loves books and trust me, we needed some new material around here. She helped her younger sister open gifts, which was sweet but that was the only shred of human she let shine yesterday, the rest of the day was filled with entitlement, defiance and cookies.We visited my mother in the nursing home, which is boring, I admit, but we brought toys for her to play with which usually keeps her busy. Not Christmas day. She was clearly vying for our attention as my mother held the 10 month old. She shrieked and cried almost the whole time. My mother shares a room--I apologized so much to the other woman.At the in-laws, I was relieved that she had the cousins to play with. That went mostly well---until it was time to open presents and if she didn't have another gift in the que to open, she started throwing a fit. I was mortified. "WHERE'S MY PRESENTS? I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO OPEN". I removed her from the family and talked to her--you can guess how well that worked. Present opening went on for an eternity because my in-laws delayed gift distribution in an effort to enjoy watching others open their gifts which is totally reasonable and appreciated but was the fuel to her toddler fire. In addition, My mother-in-law had a god damn cookie emporium at her house and with all the chaos, I'm pretty sure my kid ate a solid third of them. She was demanding more cookies.People laughed, thought it was cute. Told me that "all kids do this, don't worry". But I worried. I felt like a failure of a parent watching my child turn into a major brat. I was too tired to have a glass of wine when we got home. I ate the one cookie I hid from my kid and went to bed. Please, PLEASE tell me I'm not alone? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2BSfVfr
No comments:
Post a Comment