Aric is in this ….. phase …. right now. At least I hope to GOD it’s a phase and not what will be his forever personality. This child? Has turned into a whiny, spoiled, brat.
On our 4th of July day off this week, we didn’t do a thing. I do feel bad about that, keeping Aric cooped up in the house all day, but it was HOT! Over 100 degrees hot! And humid! And I just didn’t even want to put the dog outside. So maybe that had something to do with his attitude. But that day, it was positively awful. I was googling Fed-Ex to see if they were open so I could ship him up to my mom who is up north in the cooler-ish weather lounging in a lake all day.
Jerk.
ANYWAY.
He was AWFUL. When he wasn’t crying about not getting his way, he was whining about not getting his way. We let him stay up late the night before watching Mulan (which he was TOTALLY into for about 30 minutes) and enjoying his first homemade malt. Then he woke up a full hour early. Meaning I was up before 7 on my mid-week day off. And it went downhill from there. He whined all morning about wanting to watch TV (I really try and limit the boob-tube). He whined when I caved and turned on the TV and GOD FORBID MICKEY MOUSE WASN’T ON!!! He whined when we gave him a snack. He whined while we made his lunch. HE THREW HIS ENTIRE LUNCH PLATE ON THE FLOOR.
I was already at the end of a VERY short rope and it was barely noon.
So we put him down for a nap. After 30 minutes of wrangling him BACK into his bed he finally slept. For 45 minutes. And he refused to go back to sleep after that.
Around 3 I’d had enough of everything, so I went to lay down on my bed to try and nap. For 30 STRAIGHT MINUTES, he whined NON-STOP. I snapped. I picked him up, put him in his room, and shut the door without saying a word. I didn’t care what he did in his room as long as he was SILENT FOR 10 FREAKING MINUTES.
And he was. He read books quietly and peacefully in his room for almost 45 minutes while I rested and cried my eyes out at JUST HOW FRUSTRATED he has been making me lately.
Is it my fault he’s this whiny and entitled? He DEMANDS we get up from the couch and “walk” with him to his playroom. When we don’t? Temper tantrum. He DEMANDS specific snacks RIGHTTHISSECOND. If not? Temper tantrum. He used to have good manners, saying please (usually) and thank you (almost always). Now? HAHAHAHA!!!!
Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the fact that we’ve been cooped up for so long because of the heat. Maybe it’s the changes in his routine this summer rotating between different daycare providers each week. Maybe it’s because I’m a shitty parent who is turning her child into one of those entitled, bratty children that are just starting to enter the workplace assuming that they are going to get everything handed to them and if not OMG THE WORLD IS ENDING!
What’s going to happen when this new baby comes? It will be the dead of winter, which means more being cooped up in the house unless I want to bundle up a new born AND a toddler and haul them to the mall or something ridiculous. Which means more energy from a tot who, quite honestly, needs his running time. And I won’t be able to devote nearly as much time to him as he’ll be used to. And it will be just so much easier to cave in to his demands, thus creating an even MORE spoiled child.
AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
Please tell me this is a phase. Please tell me this is just the terrible twos. Please tell me that at some point it WILL get better and he WILL sleep again (even if he doesn’t nap, I’m OK with that. I’ll still put him in his room for an hour of quiet reading time. I just need him to sleep at night). Please tell me that I’m not actually creating a monster.
Oh, and the title of the post?
First they’re sour:
Then they’re sweet:
Both videos were shot within 10 minutes of each other. Also, this was shot a week ago. He’s since gotten much, much better at singing and requests demands we listen to this song over and over and over in the car each day. I LOVE when he gets to the “I missed you so bad!” part! So, it’s not ALL terrible. I guess.
