The past few weeks have been an ongoing battle. My 8 year old has taken to screaming and yelling. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Fierce, angry screaming at the top of her lungs. Anything can set her off. Today in the midst of all her screaming, she declared "Nobody wants a mom like YOU!" Yeah, I know one day she'll get it. One day when she has kids of her own she'll look back and see that it wasn't all that bad. But my kids have, to this point, never yelled at me with such hate in their voice. It hurt. It made me cry. It brought me to my knees and ask my Father in Heaven "What do I need to do differently?" It made me want to call my mommy and cry and ask her what I should do, but I can't just pick up the phone and call Ireland.
To add to that, I've also been battling the boy, daily, over using the potty. He outright refuses to do it for me. He can spend the weekend with Grandparents and be good as gold. He can spend the day with daddy in Lethbridge and be as good as gold. But when he is at home with me he'll go through 10 pair of underpants in a day, and have a melt down every single time I ask if he needs to go sit on the potty. A few days ago he wanted to sit on my lap, but I needed to feed Ella so I picked him up and let him sit on one side while I fed the baby. This wasn't good enough. He started crying and yelling at me to put Ella down. He then got down off my lap and went to his bedroom. A few minutes later he came out still screaming and crying with his favorite blanket. He came up to me yelled really loud and through his blanket at me and stormed back to his bedroom. It broke my heart that he was so mad at me. Ella was finished eating shortly after, so I put her in her swing and then went to my boy. I gave him a big hug and told him that I still loved him, even when I had to feed Ella, that I will always love him. That he was my Jimbo James. I know, I know. He is having a hard time adjusting to his new role as big brother rather than baby brother. I get it. I just don't know how to fix it.
Just so you know...this too shall pass. With both of these instances, I can recall experiencing the EXACT same thing. The answer is LOVE! Just continue to love them. You are an awesome mom, so just keep loving them all. Keep living like you posted in the last post...make people most important, not things. And before you know it, they will be 17 and expressing publicly how much they appreciate their mom. It is a wonderful reward! And it happens in the blink of an eye!
ReplyDeleteOh Mandy - you must be trying to DO something right! Didn't you recently post that you were working on changing the yelling and screaming in your life? The adversary does not want you to suceed in that - he wants your family to be miserable. BUT you know better! Keep on making new goals and making adjustments to old ones. Your children will adjust to the new you ... and soon they will start following your new example. You are amazing. You can do this hard thing. Being a mom is much harder for your generation - I am rooting for you. And you can call and cry on my shoulder anytime. Love Aunt Linda
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