Hi I'm new to this so bare with me...Im mum to 3 gorgeous boys of 10, 5 and 18 months. They're mega hard work but I wouldn't be without them for a second, however my relationship with the middle one is more often than not strained. I have attended a number of parenting classes mostly with conflicting advice and things improve slightly for a little while and then go downhill again. Basically he challenges absolutely everything I ask of him be it getting up, getting washed, getting dressed, eating breakfast, putting shoes on, getting into the car, putting/keeping seatbelt on, getting out of the car, walking with me into school instead of running off and then it starts all over again when I collect him from school until he finally falls asleep at whatever time he decides. Im sure these all sounds like trivial little things but its relentless, day in day out and I'm absolutely exhausted by it.
I try and have a good routine and always have done which the other 2 follow well, particularly bedtime which is supposed to be bath, story, half hour free time in own bedroom then lights out and sleep all by about 7.30. But he just won't go to bed and runs up and down stairs shouting and waking the little one which he thinks is hillarious. I've tried 1-1 time, taking toys away etc but he just dosn't seem to care enough about anything to be bothered by it. Sorry its a long one but if anyones got any advice I'd be really grateful as I'm feeling really down and depressed and just feel like running away.