I'm working hard on my relationship with Cirdan. I love him, but I am so triggered by him. He needs love, attention and approval, yet I am really struggling to give him those things. He so quickly complains about everything! "Guess what Cirdan? You get to go to Ben's house to play!" "Aaaawwww! When can I play with Brian?!"
"Time to put on your shoes" "Whaaaaaaat?!"
"After you finish clean-up you can have a cookie and watch tv until bedtime ok?" "Why do we always have to do cleanup?! You are so mean Mama!!!"
And the list goes on. I get a feeling after a while that I can do nothing right, and that he will always find something to complain about. So how do I get him to learn a new habit? Punishing it out of him has so far been unproductive, and only leads to more accusations of my meanness. Loving it out of him is proving to be very hard for me to maintain.
The whole situations would be easier if I could be less reactive. I'm sure that he keeps it up because he knows eventually I will lose my temper. Often enough I walk away feeling stuck so that he gets out of a fair amount of stuff. Like I said I'm not strong on consistency. Grrrrrr!
On the brighter side, my sweet baby Bram is enchanting, and despite a very fussy day, I still find him irresistible.
I think for now I'll hang in there and try to recall how I felt the same way about Cirdan when he was small.
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