Threenager

Everyone mentions 'the terrible twos' and although we did have some battles with Alex on the whole the 'terrible twos' weren't too bad, then he turned three...

Nobody, nobody, mentioned how hard a three year old can be, then all of a sudden I heard of the word 'threenager', I couldn't believe how fitting this word was!

Some days are bad from the start, some days his mood can change in an instant over something so trivial, and other days he can be an angel.

Today though, was a bad day.

Alex's preschool rang saying they'd forgotten to give Alex's Father's Day card and present yesterday so I thought that it would be good to get out for a walk and pick up the things, especially as Sam is teething at the moment and would not settle to sleep & knew he would in the pushchair. They also had a photographer there today so thought I could coax Alex in for a photo.

He moaned on the way there when I made him walk part of the way rather than go on the buggy which he hasn't been on for months. We went in fine, but then he showed me up in front of all his preschool teachers.

We waited whilst about 5 children had their turn in front of the photographer, his teachers tried to persuade him to try, but he screamed loudly, hit out at me, and was very embarrassing, I felt very awkward.

They suggested I 'leave' and see if he'd have a photo taken without me, but that led to him screaming the place down and running after me.

No bribe seemed to work so after about 20mins of trying I gave up, I was quite angry and sad inside as all I wanted was one nice photo from his first year at preschool.

The walk home was hard work, it started as soon as we walked out the school doors.

I refused popping into my parent's house, saying he would have been allowed had he had he's photo taken, which made him shout "I'll get it done now".

I wasn't going to give in, at this point his eyes were red and swollen from crying anyway but I wanted him to learn a lesson!

The whole way back he whined and cried and screamed. He constantly tried to run back the wrong way, or would stop and sulk.

He finally said sorry about 15 minutes after being back home, and I actually think he genuinely was, shame it didn't last too long however as we had meltdowns over trousers being inside out, asking to put on PJ's amongst other things.

We have a video session next Thursday at preschool he assures me he's going to be good for it-we shall see!

The constant whines, questions and crying for no reason, and not talking about the problem when he is crying is becoming a bit draining. How do you cope with this type of behaviour? Because personally it just grates on me and wears my patience thin and I am running out of ideas!

He's not a bad boy just a challenging age and can be so lovely at times-especially towards Sam!