Alright, where do I start?.....sigh, I’ll try to make this as easy to read as possible….My wife and I have a 7 year old son (let’s call him G), 6 year old daughter (let’s call her E), and a 4 year old daughter (let’s call her L) - yes, it’s insane.Anyway, besides all the “normal” stuff that you’re probably thinking of at this exact moment, one of the biggest issues we face daily is dinner time. EVERY. DAY. My wife is a wonderful cook, and makes these amazing homemade freezer meals (using WildTree ingredients) however, at least one (if not all) of our children will throw a fit. It usually starts out with something like this…..“I don’t like it” - “Can you pick out the corn?” - “Can I have a waffle?” - “WHaaaaaa‼! I want something else‼” - “Ehhh….whine, whine, whine! Can I have chips with it?” - “No, I’m not eating that” - “I’m not hungry - can I get down?”There are others, but I think that covers most the bases. Last night for example was absolutely horrible. E gobbled up the food my wife made (by the way, my wife is sick with a cold and I told her to go to bed and rest when I got home from work, so it’s just me and the three minions), but G & L spent the next HOUR AND A HALF complaining, whining, and arguing about how they didn’t like it, didn’t want to eat it, etc. I even heated up last night’s leftover dinner (which was lemon pepper chicken with rice), and they complained about that!I can’t say I was a perfect dad during that hour and a half - at first I was very patient and spoke to them calmly, but after about 30-40 minutes of that, the gloves came off. I yelled. I threatened (and followed through on my threats) to take certain toys away. I sent them to bed to get their pj’s on and brush their teeth - THREE OR FOUR TIMES - yet somehow, mostly with my wife eventually intervening, they ended up back at the table to “try eating yet again” - which resulted in more arguments. In the middle of all this, I heard it mentioned from G to his mom that the hamster cage still wasn’t cleaned (it’s been two weeks - not good), so I thought to myself, “sigh…my wife is sick and the kids are being evil (well, minus G), so maybe if I work on cleaning the hamster cage it’ll take my mind off E & L not eating dinner and they’ll leave me alone”…..ehh…that was a dumb thing to think and actually put into action.So long story short the evening ended with the hamster crap, pee, and used hamster bedding from the cage dumped on the kitchen floor (the hamster was in its hamster ball, rolling around the floor with pee getting through the hamster ball cracks and getting on the floor as well). I called for my wife to please come help me (as the kids were also trying to get into the area I was in, which they would end up stepping all over the hamster crap) but apparently I “yelled” because she came out very angry at me for how I was losing my temper at the kids and now her (I honestly wasn’t mad at my wife - she was in the bedroom resting/watching TV, and I could hear the TV all the way out into the kitchen, so I raised my voice so she could hear me….anyway, I digress).I’ll stop typing up a “book”, but the above is a sample of how almost all our evenings go. There are days when I feel like I wish I didn’t even have kids - don’t get me wrong, I love them very much! There are just many days (more often than not) where I don’t want to be a parent. I’m nervous and get anxiety almost every day I come home from work because I stress about how the evening is going to go and how the kids are going to ruin the night and start fights between my wife and I. Sigh….my kids are at an age where they constantly talk back, and believe me - we’ve tried various ways of punishment and love and patience, and most the time nothing seems to work. My wife is also a stay at home mom, is a reseller for Young Living Essential Oils, is involved in mothers programs in the local area for play dates and stuff, AND home schools the three hooligans (first year home schooling, but we are both heavily leaning towards enrolling them). Phew….I just don’t know what to do any more. Anyone out there in a similar situation? Any useful, healthy, positive advice? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2embYz5
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