Parenting is such an emotional roller coaster. We have our good days and our bad days around here, as I’m sure every family does. But do you ever have a season that is just plain tough?
We’re in that one. That season where our family has a lot of transition happening, and our schedules are too busy, and our little girl just turned 2.
I don’t know that I believed what people said about two-year-olds. I think that part of me believed that it wouldn’t happen to us, that we wouldn’t have the Terrible Twos, and would skip right past the Threenager stage. Oh, dreams, you betray me!
Now, my little girl is very sweet and polite, she loves hard and expresses big. She is snuggly and laid back and awesome…until she isn’t.
We’ve been having days where she cries, throws tantrums, and has fits ALL. DAY. LONG. When we’re home, she wants to go byebye, and when it’s time to leave, she only wants “Mommy’s house!”
Most days, I can deal with it. Tantrums lead to timeouts, then hugs and apologies (eventually). Meltdowns become teachable moments, and we learn to work through emotions. But then, there are the days when I just can’t.
I can’t take another fit. I can’t listen to another scream. I can’t sing another Daniel Tiger song (anyone else think his mom is a saint?!).
We were in the car the other day, and she screamed all morning. We ran some errands and she was awesome (at least she’s good in public), but we came home and more screaming. She took a nap, and woke up screaming. Into the car? More screaming. And finally, I just broke. She was crying, I was crying, even the sky was crying! (I know, it rains every afternoon in south Louisiana, but just play along with me here…)
I was driving down the road, sobbing, thinking, “I just don’t know what to do. How can I get her to stop crying all, day. long?” When I hear her sweet little voice say, “Horsey, Mommy! I see horsey!”
And it clicked- this, too, shall pass. Our lives will settle down. My toddler will learn that fits get her nowhere. Peace will return to our home. My job is to keep being the best Mom that I know how to be, and to get the snuggles in when I can.
