Why!?

I am so over this age and stage. My son is a completely different person than he was as a 2 year old and I’m praying it gets better at 4.. which is soon 🙃 (November 4th), but all signs point to “haha nope”. Because everything with him has to be an argument (not that I entertain it, I won’t argue with a child), but it’s constant. I tell him to stop something he has to argue back “I’m not! I’m just doing *xyz*.” Constantly telling me no, which does not fly with me. He’s even started hitting me. I feel extremely stressed and frazzled and on top of it there’s so much going on in life that is just so stressful and overwhelming right now and I don’t even know what to think or do. I just need some solidarity I guess, because I’m about to pull my hair out. 😭
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Anna! My son will be 4 Nov 9, he also started trying to swing at us! It's crazy we don't discipline him that way so it's so weird that it's his go to! Saying things like" we keep our hands to ourselves", " we don't get what we want just because we're being loud" . My husband and I are currently in school and I've noticed that when we're busier with schoolwork it's when he's acting out the most. Intentional quality works.. sometimes. 😵‍💫 You're definitely NOT alone!!

Do you try to practice "gentle parenting"? It's normal for them to test boundaries and want some control in their lives. I think it's a positive action to explain The Why to them. They're curious, and it's reasonable to explain things to them. We've talked about how non-negotiable things are related to keeping them safe and healthy because that's our job. Sometimes I have to stop and realize the thing/behavior I want isn't really that important. It's a lot of unlearning the parenting I was brought up with, and not using the "because I said so".

Oh man I feel this! I've tried gentle parenting and everything else and nothing seems to help. I feel like I'm drowning between my almost 4 year old behavior and taking care of my almost 4 month old that is sick and not sleeping

My son will be 4 soon as well and he is like a totally different kid. I swear I’m arguing with a know it all 10 yr old every day. I can’t help outside of just solidarity. We have just been holding our boundaries together. He will try to test us together and individually. Luckily no hitting but he does “play” pretty aggressively so if he starts I tell him I won’t play with him unless he calms down and then I leave the room.

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