When Life Give You Lemons…..

You know the ole saying “when life gives you lemons…you’re supposed to make lemonade”? Yeah….well I find this saying a little ridiculous. I mean deep down I know this phase is meant to keep you motivated during dark times of your life and inspire you to look on the brighter side of things….but come on really? Will it actually work? I doubt it. Usually, I try to stay the course and not jump to negativity, but there are moments that it’s just too difficult not to cross the line and become Mr. Hyde.

So, I’m a mother to a three year old whom I love dearly. He’s my miracle baby my only baby and I’m grateful to have him in my life. When they say you go through the terrible two’s…they fail to mention that the terrible three’s can be worse. We went through the spell of biting and thank God we are out of this stage. I mean we fed the little guy with no issues and yet he seemed to think cannibalism was ok at two. Now that he’s three, we are moving onto the hitting, not listening well, and the ever so forbidden word “NO” (which I’m so over hearing and even wish he didn’t have this word in his vocabulary).  He’ll do ok in school (daycare) for a bit and then we’ll have constant repeat days of having bad reports. I get so frustrated trying to figure out what has him gravitating to this behavior. I’m not against spanking (as I was spanked as a child), but really am trying to stay clear from taking this disciplinary action. So, we do time-out, and time-out, and time-out (did I mention we do time-out?). I know I’m getting a little redundant, aren’t I? Last Friday he didn’t want to listen to his teachers, broke all the crayons during color time, and played again with the damn sticks outside at recess.  Now he’s not the only one partaking in this outside stick sword fun during recess…..but I’m just like really???? I mean I wouldn’t be so upset if it didn’t mean him coming in contact with the stick and another classmate. And just guess who had to have fun with sticks again at recess??? Yes, my son. At this point, the only thing I knew to do was physically take him on his playground and remind him of what he can play on and to not pick up anything off the ground to play with. Maybe this helped….at least I hope so.

His father and I rode together to get him this afternoon and then drove back to our work to pick up my husband’s truck. Needless to say, little man wanted to ride with his daddy, and I was like you’re already in place and we’re all meeting up together at home now. Yeah, he didn’t like that a bit and proceeded to have a meltdown (crying and smacking his hand on his tablet). Fury hit me immediately and all I could manage was to take the tablet from him and let him cry the way home. It was tough, but he eventually calmed down.  Thankfully, I will say my husband does back me when it comes to disciplining out child. I do realize that the child is only three and expressing himself the only way he knows how, but we’re trying to remind him the importance of behaving properly to friends and adults. I just hope that in my discussions to him he is grasping a little of what I’m trying to explain to him. I know my boy is a good kid….he just needs some guidance on how to get there properly. I guess at the end of day when I’m trying to make that glass of lemonade, I need to remember to just take it one day at a time….be patient and let everything fall into place.