Personality transplant at 2?

[lifewith2x]

Lighthearted, kind of.

My first born has just turned 2 and I swear when the clock struck midnight on her birthday, a hormone fired up or a personality transplant happened whilst she slept.

Honestly, I’ve heard of terrible 2’s but never thought much of it. Wow. My sweet, kind, funny baby has turned into a grumpy, stompy little woman.

I’m on my 286th “Mummmmmmmmmmmy” (whingey voice that goes right through me) whilst I’m cleaning, we go out every single day, she’s got colouring books out, I’ve even put Miss Rachel on for her for an hour whilst I hoover and put away laundry. She’s turned into a cling on, grabbing at my legs every 5 minutes. If she’s not touching me, she’s trying to climb me.

Food refusal has started. Everything is “no” (grumpy face pouting at the same time). She shouts if we don’t do whatever she wants right within that second. Washing her hair is an absolute process all of a sudden, my neighbour must think I’m torturing her 3 nights a week at 6:30pm. Previously a very good teeth brusher, she screams at me for the whole 2 minutes in the morning and before bed.

In all seriousness, what can I do? 😅 I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I love the bones of her but I’m struggling 🫣 I’m also 26 weeks pregnant with early onset of SPD and also have sciatica so the constant wanting to be picked up is killing me!

No advice but I sympathise with you! It's like they get some power from somewhere 😂 Just keep on being consistent with her, lots of communication and you model being cheery. They do come out the other side, I promise 😊

Thank you @TooManyCupsAndMugs! You’ve given me the hope I needed 😂 DH and I are very calm naturally so do take the calm, keep voice level and explanation when we say no (like her asking for chocolate at 7:30 this morning, I don’t even know where this has come from seeing as she has chocolate about 3 times a year 🤦🏻‍♀️). As a patient person, I never thought it would be a 2 year old that tested that to the limit 😂

Oh dear, I can see this is coming for me, as DS2 has just turned into a stroppy toddler at the stroke of midnight when he turned 18 months, and I can totally see this happening at 2... I'm afraid my only suggestion is wash her hair less frequently? You'd probably get away with once a week. Also I think this is the age that we started letting DS1 watch a short video on our phone while brushing his teeth (that ship has already long since sailed with DS2 who likes the Hey Duggee song). One positive is that he likes to watch Numberblocks so is now surprisingly good at maths.

My 2 year old makes my hormonal, stroppy always correct 14 year old seem completely rational 😂☠️

Wait till 3, even better than 2 imo!!

Didnt wash our kids hair for months when she was 2...didn't cause any issues. So if it saves you the battle just leave it.

Teeth is different though, we bribed compliance with Bluey

I’m all for a once a week but not washing it for months is awful. Was it not full of food/juice/sweat/sand/whatever else? Puts me in mind of the beard on the husband in the Twits by Roald Dahl.

Some things, like keeping clean and hygienic are a non negotiable. A lot of other things can be negotiated with bribes/battle picking but not this. What if she’d refused to have her teeth brushed without screaming? Would you have just left that for months too?

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I can't remember it getting that gross...she didn't have a lot of hair though. Any food I think we just used a wet flannel on the bit of hair that was mucky... So all I'm saying if you can downgrade its importance in your mind letting it go might not be as bad as you think..

We did decide teeth was important, so we put bluey on, then paused it until she let the toothbrush go in her mouth, once in it went on again, any messing about it got paused etc. Was still a source of stress, but that's how we got through before she grew out of being such an arsehole