Terrible 2’s? Since we’ve gotten back from our trip I’ve noticed Tristan putting up more of a fight with things such as getting dressed in the morning, going to bath before bed, etc and to be honest it’s actually distressing me. I know that toddlers will try and assert themselves in situations they feel they can control, like getting dressed, eating, bathing, etc but I am not sure how to handle it.

I guess my natural response is between getting cross with him and holding & comforting him and trying to explain it all to him in a way that he understands. I know toddlers have real problems handling their emotions and expressing them correctly so I guess I need to lean more towards holding him, explaining it to him and comforting him. But by the end of a long day I’m also tired and had enough of playing, being jumped on, called, nagged at and and and!

So last night I felt particularly distressed by Tristan acting up when we said it was bath time. He cried and begged to watch just 1 more TV show (yes, he’s a great negotiator already) but I picked him up and said he can watch TV in the morning and it was way past his bedtime and carried him to his bath. Then, getting into the bath resulted in more tears, he was just weepy. We finally made it into the bath! I then got on with getting his stuff ready for bed and when Shaun tried to take him out the bath it was more tears and calls of ‘mommy take me out’ and I just couldn’t anymore. I was about to start crying myself. So I did what I knew would calm him and that’s to do it all myself. The tears stopped and he was just happy and relaxed in my arms which relaxed and calmed me.

I really think it’s got worse since we went away and maybe he’s just not sure if I’m going to go away again which is upsetting him; especially when he’s tired. Because he’s fine when I drop him at school but evenings are a different matter. Or is it just the “terrible 2’s” everyone talks about?

All I know is that I am going to try harder to be more understanding to his needs and ‘cries for help’ when he’s tired at the end of the day. Soon enough he’ll realise I’m not going to leave again but he knows that I always come back and that’s the biggest thing. He must know I’ll always come back.