So I can finally blog about this....Scott has been gone all week!! But he is almost home!! I can hardly wait. This is the longest he has been gone since we had 3 kids and all I have to say is he better never leave again. Just kidding but man ......my heart goes out to single moms...I seriously don't know how they do it. Seriously.....I am just very dependant on him I guess because I am so tired! (However the Lord has had mercy on me in so many ways. One being two of my Salt girls (a college small group I lead) came over for 4 hours last night. They bathed the girls, helped with dinner, and even put them to bed with me! Thank you Meg and Ali- you have no idea how much that helped me!)
To top it off Avery is at such a hard stage. Seriously she whines and cries and throws fits and hits me and her sisters and throws food and on and on and on. I really thought Karis was a hard toddler because she was so free-spirited and into things constantly.....but man.....I have never had a girl like this before. All my normal discipline tactics don't seem to work. (Not that I have many.) I know I need to just hold my ground and be consistent and not give in but it is so hard! I can't handle the screaming and I think she realizes that. I know she realizes that.
I put her in time-out, ignore, make her say sorry (which she does with glee), redirect, distract, sing a song, but hello.....sometimes I just lose it. So this week she spent some time in her room.....I had to just put her in and shut the door and listen to her scream. It wasn't easy but it did work. She would calm down within 5-10 minutes and play and then I would get her and hold her and love on her and then it would start all over....
I know lots of you have been through this and are even going through it right now. Can you think of any tricks I haven't tried that might be useful? Anything that doesn't involve duct tape or physical force that is? :)
And I do love her more than life itself and I know she will just be a really persistent adult and real successful and all but man I need to survive the next few months here....
And she does have a ton of sweet qualities too don't get me wrong.
3 comments:
It took you 3 girls to get one of these? And I thought we shared a gene pool....
I got "the spirited child" on the first try and tell myself the same thing all the time. ("These are great characteristics for when she grows up. Dear Lord, let us both survive until then."
We have some creative solutions but they might be too old for Avery. One is, "she who wastes food gets bread and water for the rest of the day." This is daddy's recent invention after a food-throwing episode when she didn't get the snack she wanted. The bread is whole-grain with seeds, so it's not like she's starving. She can have as much as she wants, but that's all, until she develops a really good apology. We've had to use it twice and it does seem to generate a change of heart.
I have more ideas--we can talk. : )
LOL....OH I KNOW we share the same gene pool for a variety of reasons! ;0
Thank you - lets chat soon. And I hope I didn't make her sound like a monster. She is only 19 months for goodness sake....it has just been a loooong couple of weeks!
Abby,
I don't think you made little Avery sound like a monster at all. I think you are just being honest about how hard it can be and I find that refreshing! From what I know of you...I am sure you will come up with a creative solution to get through this tough stage. You seem like one amazing Momma!:)
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