what are the parenting challenges you are dealing with at the moment?

[driedapricots]

in the spirit of 'this too shall pass' i wondered what issues we are all currently trying to work thru..mine; stroppyness & dramatic meltdowns from 5 yo (tbf this has been going on for 4 yrs ...& early Morning waking for milk with 2.5yo...e.g 4am..ugh. (obv minor compared to those with v v serious issues, i dont mean this thread to offend anyone in that situation of course)

3 year old DTs fighting with each other. DT1 wanting to get in bed with me and snuggle every night at about 2am. (That one's not too bad, actually, except I end up without any bed perched on the edge).

Toilet training and tantrums.

DS2 sleep. Specifically, wanting to get up at five o'clock when he is still knackered. Resisting all attempts at sleep training, even those that worked for DS1

To those of you who have very early morning risers, it will pass. Our DS was a 3.30 - 4.00 am early riser until he started full-time at school (in fact we went to see The Impossible on Saturday - all about the 2004 Tsunami and DW reminded us that she and DS were up at some unearthly hour as the story was breaking). I'm surprised we survived those years sometimes but we did. He still gets up at 6.00 am but that's a lot easier to cope with and entirely necessary now he's at secondary school and has to commute ;-).

DS and DD still bicker all of the time and it's very tiring....You cannot relax for more than ten minutes before there's fall-out from some argument....GRRRRR.

Tantrums. Just starting now so a new experience for me. I had no idea that things like which spoon to use and which coat to wear were so important!

Ds - pooing in his night nappy instead of on the toilet (ie holding it in during the day). Tantrums. 3.5 yrs.
Dd (4 months) waking at 4:30am for the day.

Dd1 (3) can do NOTHING without argument/discussion/bargaining/tantrum.

Dd2 is in hospital

DS (8 but developmentally about 6yrs old) autistic meltdowns
DD (3) food fussiness

DS (14) being an arse at school and i keep getting called to meetings where the teachers look about 9....

OP my 5yo is having rather a lot of stroppy moments too. Never had this with my daughter, wondering how long it'll go on...

Whining
Whinging
Stroppiness
Fighting

And that's not even mentioning the major stuff like SN assessments and chronic bedwetting.

We are in a bit of a quiet patch right now, except some cheekiness in DD1 3.11.

Early rising passes. DD1 was up from 5 am for years. She now sleeps in and makes us all late because she was my alarm clock and I keep forgetting to set a real one :o

Watching this thread to see what I have to look forward to!

dd2 (2.1) is throwing things. all the bloody time. food, shoes, crockery, you name it. And she wakes at least once nightly to ask to come into bed with us.

dd1 (5.8) is quite socially awkward, so am working on the basics with her, like the fact that kids are more likely to want to be her friend if she actually responds when they say hello.

DS (almost 1), refusing to nap during the day & then waking up pissed off in the middle of the night, grumpy, because he's tired.
At least this thread has shown me the wonders that await me in the years ahead

Skiffen, hope Dd2 in hospital is nothing too serious?

DS2 might be entering puberty: he's spent all weekend holed up in his room, barely grunting to the rest of us but still managing to strop with his little sister. We're going to have a lovely hols!

Sleepwalking (DS - 2.10) - we had a put a stairgate up for the first time ever!
Also night terrors.
Poor little soul!

TTrying to get ds (16) out of bed in the mornings.
The other 2 seem to be doing ok at the moment (touch wood!)

ds1 is turning my hair white at the moment, he seems to have developed Kevin attitude - lots of head-tossing, stomping, "you just don't GEDDIT DO YOU" - he's 10, Aspie and pedantic and NEVER backs down (like me)

both boys are lazy and slovenly (though gorgeous and witty and loving) and spread their possessions around the school/playground/world with gay abandon

NOTHING is ever their fault

their room is a public health hazard and they weep piteously and make insultingly feeble attempts if asked to clean it up

And the old "Black Peter is watching you" is starting to wear thin this year!

DD 6 arguing and answering back
Not listening
Not doing things in first time of asking
Not self feeding she would rather read or do maths....
Stopping finger sucking before adult teeth come in.

DD2 (2.10) has been totally knocked off her stride by the arrival of DD3 (5 months).

A formerly happy-go-lucky sunny-natured child is sullen and sometimes refuses to engage at all. :( She's also off her food.

I'm home at the moment and doing so much with her. I thought we were making progress, but she has a cold at the moment and it all seems to have unraveled.

The big and the small seem happy enough for now.

Ds (6) and dd (2 years 10 months) bickering constantly, had no idea it would start this early and it's never ending - literally starts the minute they wake up - had them both on time out at 7.30am a couple of weeks ago - far too early for all that!

Trying to potty train dd and having the usual ups and downs, sure we'll get there eventually???

Ds goes from being a stroppy bugger to being an adorable angel and then back to being stroppy in the blink of an eye; hoping its just end of term tiredness.

By early, I meant at age 2 and 6, although starting as soon as they wake up also drives me nuts!

DD 22 months has started to answer me back

Ragingly hormonal dd2 (11), who can find something miserable in the happiest situation, and who has developed a streak of bitter, twisted jealousy that's a mile wide. Almost revels in petty injustices, glass permanently half-empty. Comes home from school every day with a new tale of woe, usually embellished to make it as bad as possible. "Today everybody else got a packet of sweets from the teacher, except me. I only got one... and she gave me a horrible look when I tried to get another one... and it had been dropped on the floor..." And when I ask/remind her to do something you can nearly see it sailing in one ear and out the other.

Surprisingly, her 14 year old sister is a delight just now, but has health problems (2 lots of surgery next year, probably) that we're worried about).

I'm reminding myself that dd1 was horrible at 11 as well (completely ruined our once-in-a-lifetime big family holiday).

No sleep with teething DD (7 mo). I got 2.5 hours last night. I can manage quite well on 5 but 2.5 doesn't cut it. She was doing the early mornings before she stopped sleeping altogether. Daytime naps hard work too but hoping its all teething related. She's still a jolly baby though despite it and this post is good for reminding me to enjoy her now!! CockyPants - I thought for a minute you had 6 DDs - thought you were doing well if it was only number 6 that was causing trouble!