Am I a mean horrid mother?

[Namechang3]

I've namechanged (obviously). I'm feeling ever so crap today at my parenting of DD (23 mos)

DD was acting up so I put for a nap earlier, and left her in her cot for 3 hours. She slept for the last 1.5hrs but the 1.5hrs before she protested for half hr and then spent an hr reading/playing in her crib before actually falling asleep.

Tonight she went down fine although way after her usual bedtime due to the earlier nap, but then heard me moving about and asked to get out. When I said no, night time, she threw her dummy out, then threw her toys out and had a tantrum...I picked her up and gave her a quick cuddle before forcing her into her pushchair and strapping her in, giving back her dummy and telling her again that it's night time and not playtime. She's finally out and I'm about to move her back to her crib.

I feel like I am the world's crappest tonight after thinking it through and writing this out.

No you're not. Everyone has an off day when parenting is hard work. If you find that the bad days outnumber the good days, please get some support.

No, of course you're not. 2 year olds have tantrums and we deal with them as we can, some days better than others.

I'm sure you're not horrid. I'm not completely sure I understand the post (pushchair in bedroom?) but you sound frazzled not mean. Assuming you didn't hurt her, mark it up to experience and move on.

The fact that you are reflecting is probably a good sign. Do you have a plan for today?

I remember DS at at age, sometimes he would just get overwhelmed by his environment, and would need to be somewhere quite and calming like his cot, sometimes he wouldn't sleep, just play with his teddies - sounds like you had a similar situation earlier in the day with the nap.

She's almost 2, she's going to get in rages, throwing things because you won't do what she wants - it's a natural part of childhood. Nothing wrong with telling her it's time to sleep.

Might be an idea to keep the house calm and quiet until you know she is definitely in that deep sleep. (I won't take phone calls before 8.30pm, I know there is a chance my voice will wake or keep DS awake, where as after 8.30 I can crash about as much as I like).

I feel like a mean horrid mother every day with my tantrumming two year old. But at the end of the day they need to sleep, nap, eat, have bum changes etc, so you are doing the right thing making sure she does- i just wish we could do at least one of those things without a battle!