Life as a Parent 2.4

[Neon Ignition]

SFJr1 is home after a week away keeping him at bay from SFJr2 who has had impetigo. Let's see how much influence my parents have had on him

[teddymeow]

Nancy was 1 on 14th September. Last Thursday saw it being her first anniversary of coming home.

We've outgrown our three bedroom house as it has a flat roof so no real storage space to out stuff.

We looked at a house today and it was really nice; smaller main bedroom but more rooms overall so more space. Also far more modern than where we are, nicer area, better school catchment area, lounge on first floor with a balcony so awesome summer potential...

Anyway, during walking around the conversation turns to having a third child and wether there's be space in this house we're looking at. I caught the look of horror on my face in a mirror and that let slip my feelings about a third ratbag.

I've struggled with Nancy if I'm being honest. I don't remember Harry being such a bad sleeper. The past few nights Nancy has woken at about 1am and cryed near solidly for 2 hours before giving in to exhaustion. She has dark circles round her eyes where she is so tired!

Harry was definitely never a poor eater either whereas Nancy will eat some finger foods but no purées etc meaning she is still having multiple bottles during the day as she doesn't eat until she's full.

So, a third at this point couldn't be further from my mind.

[Zaki]

I thought mood swings were bad before pregnancy...sheesh!

[teddymeow]

I thought mood swings were bad before pregnancy...sheesh!

Don't even get me started.

[Zaki]

Don't even get me started.

I've never experienced such irrational behaviour in my entire life! Can't wait for the next 4 months to pass.

If this keeps up, then I'm going to disappear on a lengthy "canoeing" trip!

[dataDave]

I've never experienced such irrational behaviour in my entire life! Can't wait for the next 4 months to pass.

They could get a lot worse postnatal. My wife was actually fine during the entire pregnancy as she was doing yoga nearly every day.

[Dogg Thang]

My wife was great. I have never eaten so many burgers before or since. I miss those days.

[Neon Ignition]

Didn't notice any difference with my missus. She has low patience before and after

Famous last words when it comes to the kids sleeping patterns but with each, once the first 4-5 months were painfully out the way, I took a pretty cold approach with them where the missus no longer goes in to check on them when they cried and after the first 2-3 instances per night, once you're sure they're okay and just being needy, we stopped going in till morning. Within 5-7 days both slept throughout the night. Being ill can throw them off a little as you need to be hands on and look after them but once they're better, rerun the colder approach and within two nights they're back to flat out sleeping...

The third ones totally going to be a nightmare isn't it?

[endo]

Our 2-year-old woke me this morning with a massive, adult-sized turd on the bed, mere inches from my face.

[teddymeow]

Nancy slept through last night. 19.30 - 7.00.

Damn inconsistent child.

[Neon Ignition]

Thankfully we've only had to deal with poo the once, they time it was smeared over his bedroom wall. Must have thought it was a funkiest smelling Play-doh ever

[k0pp0]

There often does seem to be an unwillingness on people to call out bad behaviour. I get frustrated with ours and how people respond to them as they'll aim to pacify or quickly dole out treats to cheer them up if they've been told off because the adult is so worried about the child not liking them anymore, selfish behaviour that just reinforces the bad behaviour. You tend to be in tune with your own kids, easily enough to know if they're ratty through hunger, overtiredness etc or just being a little bugger lol

Sod that. I'm all about bollocking other peoples kids if they are winding mine up, or getting on my tits.

Not so long ago, caught the school alpha male about to pull a very mean prank on my son (kid is a typical ring leader bully type). I went ape at him in front of a load of other parents - who all probably secretly wished they had the balls to do it.

A couple of weeks later I did the same when he was throwing stones at my lad from across a main road. One of these days I'm going to lose it and just kick the front door of their house down.

[Blobcat]

At work, having badly behaved kids visit is such a nightmare. In a dental surgery there are so many dangerous (and expensive) instruments and equipment about, most parents try once maybe to quell them down (these are the really naughty to bad, cheeky and mischievous we can cope with) or just ignore. If we ask a kid to maybe not ram their fingers/ eyes into sharp pointy things or maybe stop opening all the drawes/ try not to break the ++£3k chair, we get mums complaining how we are vile human beings. We had a kid my college asked 5 times to stop stamping on his foot peddling/ swinging on the table with the instruments on it. Luckily I don’t think we got a complaint with him ( he back talked his mum several times and tried to climb on the counter during his mums exam).

We have to be so careful how we talk to parents but safety always come first, even if it makes me , quote “ a vile nurse who should never work with children”.

Not sorry I stopped your child that’s being a bit of a git from turning herself into a human cactus, fool.

[Neon Ignition]

At this point I've given up trying to avoid the role of main authoritarian with the kids. If I stopped trying they'd have no-one left and would run us wild. SFJr2 is starting up her tantrum age currently so I've been working on introducing her to the notion that she isn't exempt from being told off herself and SFJr1 likes it because he doesn't feel singled out. She currently mostly needs me to just click my fingers in front of her to get her attention from balling her eyes out, then tell her sternly 'No, naughty, no' and very quickly the veil drops and her poker face is revealed.

SFJr1 well, bigger always means more trouble but I'm currently riding it out that he really gets upset if you say he's naughty, he hates it.

Well, I say all that works - for about 5 minutes till their energiser batteries kick in again

[QualityChimp]

Sod that. I'm all about bollocking other peoples kids if they are winding mine up, or getting on my tits.

Not so long ago, caught the school alpha male about to pull a very mean prank on my son (kid is a typical ring leader bully type). I went ape at him in front of a load of other parents - who all probably secretly wished they had the balls to do it.

A couple of weeks later I did the same when he was throwing stones at my lad from across a main road. One of these days I'm going to lose it and just kick the front door of their house down.

I was talking more about my own kids in this case.
I'm just a bit fed up of how there's always an excuse as to why my 2 y/o is having a tantrum.
Sometimes it's because they're simply not getting their own way, not because they're hungry/tired/overtired etc.

Relating you your point, though, we're always calling out other people's kids.
Normally in soft play centres when massive kids are bashing over toddlers in the under-three section.

Last week, my son was wet and it turns out the class runaway was squirting him with a water bottle.
My wife called the tearaway over and asked why and claimed they were having a water fight.
In front of his mum, she said "No you weren't and DON'T do that again."

My wife is ace!