To think everyone must have the odd Dark Day as a parent?

[NapQueen]

It can't all be roses in the garden every day can it?

I've had one of those days today. Compounded by the fact that DS had me up from 5am; I'm due on; dd 4 has been rather trying.

I even had a little cry in the bathroom earlier. Dh is amazing. Hands on, total equal parent. I imagine if he wasn't I'd have many more of these days.

I just feel so miserable and tense today. And a bit vommy. I need my bed I think but similarly I need the time after bedtime to relax alone in the bath.

Everyone has days like this surely? Or am I just not really cut out for motherhood?

This thread is wonderful. My DS is nearly 5 and my DD is nearly 2 - they both sleep wonderfully and have done for a long time and DD is actually a pretty easy kid and I STILL HAVE DARK DAYS ALL THE TIME. DS is some kind of champion whiner about every little thing under the sun, DD can be clingy when she's tired. Some days I just want to go hide under the duvet so as not to be needed.

I tip my hat to all of you doing this parenting thing on barely any sleep. I would be a lot more shouty and impatient i am bad enough already without sleep. You deserve all the kudos and the chocolate. I stand in awe.

I honestly find being a parent the hardest thing I have ever done, and I just have the one child (by choice), have a very 'hands on' DH who is a wonderful parent - but it is so, so hard - totally and utterly relentless. And yes, I do get plenty of 'me time' but the responsibility and emotional exhaustion of trying to bring up a child wears me down.

I have a very good friend who so loves being a parent (she wept when her children left home), but I just find it sheer hard work ..... I don't really 'get' what people love so much about being a parent, I know that makes me sound a not very nice person but I feel whatever I do is never 'enough' - my child is now a teenager, so I can't honestly say it gets any better as they get older ........

We all have thouse days and thouse who dont are lying.
Theres been days where iv sobbed my hurt out beacuse its all to much. But this song allways helps me when my two have been more then a handful.

Have a cry and know tomorrow is a new day.

Why thank you IrisPrima

I did actually work as a journalist back in the day, although nothing even remotely interesting. Maybe the kids' incessant talking and questions is some Karmic revenge on me for asking all those questions when I was a journalist?

When it's going well I am almost smug with how awesome my kids are and then they do that thing where they just turn into shitbags intent on destroying me.
There have been tears and I am ashamed to say shouting from me. Which I know achieves nothing/role models bad behaviour and yet I can't help but explode.

We've all been there. Tomorrow is a new day

milwoes give her a great big cuddle and let her know you are there

I had to laugh (or id cry) yesterday DS woke up after a sleep in his pram and my DP called up the stairs to me 'his awake' from his seated position from the sofa !

Oh smug usually comes before a very great fall! Definitely!

Like you hit a point where, house is all tidy, admin all organised, school and friendships going well... Then you both get gastro and it all goes to shit!

All the time op. I have an early rising 10month old and a 3 year old dd who can be hard work sometimes. S 24 7 and everyone feels like it sometimes

All the time...it's hard work. DC aged 4 never fucking stops talking EVER. DC2 is picking this up, but mostly trantruming from 4am to 8pm. Kids are amazing, hard work, and mind numbing fucks.

Half term, a week off work for me.

DD hasn't been up later than 6:30 and today was 5:30. Even at three years old she understands enough to be leaving me the fuck alone this morning. She'll whine about being tired by 10:30am and I'll want to throttle her.

I had a discussion about this on another forum once and was ripped a new arse by a load of sanctimonious witches who basically told me I needed help and my children are neglected because I don't find the enjoyment in listening to my toddler whine over and over again because I won't let her break something/eat something she shouldn't/lick the fucking dogs fur. I'm as thick skinned as they come and some of their comments hurt even though I know it wasn't true. I would hate to think someone suffering from PND was accosted with such utter shite just for being honest.

Parenting is hard. Sometimes it's miserable. I adore my children but I have had days where I just feel like walking out the house and not coming back But of course I don't and that's the point - you do it anyway. When my toddler is having a tantrum I don't tell her she's a little arsehole (even though I'm thinking it) I smile, I do a impression of fucking mr tumble for the hundredth time even though I'm dying inside. She still comes first. That's what being a mother is. Just because I don't enjoy every god given second of being a mother (because let's face it, some of it is shite) doesn't mean I don't love and cherish my children beyond any measure. But it isn't always fun and there shouldn't be the expectation that it will be. That's what leads to people feeling like failures when they shouldn't.

Also I don't do impressions and smiley faces all of the time. Sometimes I absolutely lose my shit. And that's okay too.

It's as if you are expected to turn into some kind of robot when you become a mother. You don't. You are still a human being with wants and needs and a limit to how much you can take. Its normal

I went to bed and cried day before yesterday - said to DH I feel like the worst Mum ever ( I had shouted at and belittled my eldest DD (7) who has ADHD and is so very challenging - she just wears me down)
But yesterday we had a great time, a lovely meal out together where she sat and coloured and chatted - and I cried again because the moment was so perfect.
Essentially it's a roller coaster - good days and bad days! I'm winning if I have more good days than bad - and that's as much as I can hope for.

When things are tough, I fantasise about living on my own, and the kids visit me at weekends for a night in my lovely little tidy house. DH is a great dad, they'd be fine! He's always saying he'd love to be a SAHD. Not sure he'd be so delighted about the 'me living elsewhere' part.

Well unless they've birthed Jesus Christ, of course everyone has their bad days as a parent

Even Jesus Christ would be annoying as fuck on four hours sleep.

And he probably turned his sippy cup of water into wine and got rowdy and vommy regularly.

Jesus, I have weeks like this sometimes never mind days!! Those weeks when no one wants to sleep at bedtime, everyone's going crazy during the day, I'm knackered and don't know what to do with any of them anymore... It makes me drink!

You are not alone!!!! The only way I cope with having a child is regular time away from her. The could be work, a weekly night out...hell, I go on holiday without her. I look forward to this time with greedy longing.

She is also my reason for living and I'm terrified by how much I Iove her.

Yet I run screaming from her.

It's weird as fuck this parenting lark.

Parenting is hard!! Mine are now 14,8 and 5 so past the demanding toddler stage and I definitely get more time to myself than I used to but I remember the relentlessness well!
It still can be relentless sometimes and I think the sheer responsibility can wear you down, so even when you have a few hours 'off' you know you still have tea time/ bed time/school clothes/ bags etc to think about.
There is always something to be done, I sometimes wonder what I used to do with all my spare time before I had kids!!

This has been my week.
Toddler is ill. Temp for a day, hideously snotty nose for days on end. Haven't been able to get out as much as I'd have liked to due to weather and snot.
5 year old going stir crazy. Running, crashing, bashing, yelling, goading..... Aagh, it did not stop.
We went to a birthday party this afternoon. All above behaviours allowed, even encouraged. Bloody 5 year old spends the whole time inside, sat on one spot on the floor, playing with one toy. Ignored the paddling pool, bouncy castle, archery toys and pin the tail on the donkey. He wanted to "sit quietly". Why couldn't you do that the rest of the week you whingy sod?
He also refused to eat and then moaned he was hungry later.
I had to step in and rescue my dumbass toddler from going under the trampoline and got cracked on the head by another bouncer for my troubles. Those protective nets sure are stretchy.
My poor head. I need wine. I have wine!

napqueen very funny!

Dark days, black days, days that are an endless roll of thunder that can only be quieted with the clink of ice cubes and the glug-glug-glug of a gin bottle.

Just know that anyone who tells you that they don't have dark days is a filthy fucking liar.

There were nights after my refluxing misery-baby was born that I would cry so much I was worried about becoming a raisin through sheer dehydration.

I spent an age googling things and wondering if I was the worlds shittest mum.

But it turns out I'm not. It turns out that babies grow out of reflux and become happy, delightful, curious little boys.

And also, if you give a little boy a piece of your magnum behind DHs back, he will love you more. For a full 20 minutes.

I'm with all of you.

This morning I nearly killed my son (3), over an ongoing toothbrushing war. And because he only wants his oats in a specific purple bowl. (If it is available, I oblige, otherwise the little shit can go hungry). And and and.

DD (6) chooses her times better - she knows not to mess with me on Monday mornings - but she has been a good candidate for a public hanging on many occasions.

It doesn't help that I'm 31 weeks pregnant, and have had bronchitis on and off for 8 weeks (the one course of antibiotics triggered epic vomiting), and that my boss is being the terror bitch from hell. I want to go to sleep and wake up when the baby is born.

Marquand