Please can you talk to me whilst he eats his dinner because if you don't

[Twiglett]

I may just pull his head off

DS2 (5) gets 30 minutes to eat his dinner. I set a timer. I got so fed up with the length of time he took.

OK I just carried him upstairs with him shrieking at me .. I put him to bed and told him that if he calms down and has a little rest I'll come and check on him in half an hour and if he's calm he can come back downstairs and watch a little television

he nodded at me and is now quiet

OMG .. I don't know what I've done to deserve this day .. but I must have been really bad in another life

Oh Twig :( Ds1 is going through a hardly eating anything, being whiny, argumentative little [expletive deleted] too - I've heard this time of day referred to as "the arsenic hour" because it's all so poisonous for all participants.

Definitely put him to bed at 6. Tell him he can play for a bit before going to sleep but not to disturb you. Then pour yourself a HUGE glass of wine.

Come and join me here, Twiglet, my crap day and yours combined = wine and lots of it.

now I've just smacked DD's bottom because she wilfully threw a cup (yes) of cornflakes (I know she asked for them after dinner) on the floor .. in 2 places

oh FFS ... I've forgotten how to do this

she has forgiven me though and is eating an apple on my knee and grinning at me

I really can't recommend hightly enough having your wine DURING the hell couple of hrs of teatime/bath/bed........takes the edge of the tedium off it. Its a must now in this house. I really am addicted to the 5 o clock glass. Usually only the one......sometimes 2.

Definitely time to put yourself in Time Out with an alcoholic beverage IMO :)

he has come out of his bedroom shrieking he's scared and that I'm not allowed to put him in his bedroom alone

what do I do now?

took him back saying 'In your bedroom please'

turned the light on and shut the door

was that right?

Sounds rather like my house twiglett have had a horrendous day trying to get the house ready for people to view it tomorrow, and am now clock watching 'til bed time. Plus ds decided to throw a bottle of perfume out the window (pressie from dh) and it smashed into a miliion pieces on the stones.

Yep, I think that's more than reasonable, Twig.

On a normal (non-playing up day), ds1 has his light on in his room, the door open (and the landing light on all night - a low light energy saver bulb). He knows when the big hand points down on the clock (7.30pm) that he has to switch off his light and go to bed.

Bizarrely, so far he's stuck to that. Don't think it's occurred to him to rebel (rebels on plenty of other stuff though!)

If it makes you feel better twig, I have just taken ds1 and dd's tea away due to incessant whining, refused dessert and thrown them out into the garden.

weak

I am normally exuding confidence but atm think everything I'm doing is wrong

You're not doing everything wrong... you're just human, tired and having a bad day.

If it's any consolation, I scraped the paintwork off the side of my car today. Does that help?

Oh, and as I heard the crunch said "Oh SHIT!" in a very loud voice while ds1 was in the car.

twiglett, you are a great mum, you arent usually ,like this. are you sleeping well yourself?

my 2 apparently had naps today when i was out, so i am dreading bedtime. will giving dd1 some vallergan be bad of me ? (dd1 was perwscribed it last year for nightmares, but dd2 has the current lot on perscription)

ok glass of red and everything is feeling a touch better .. he's back downstairs watching cbeebies with DD

all is quiet'ish

thanks for being here

Glass of red fixes a hell of a lot, imo :) Glad things are a little calmer :)

(now can you fix my car please? )

twiglett dont feel awful, I put my dd who is 6 in her room for time out and she normally is really calm afterwards. I have also put her to bed at 6pm if she has been extremely unruly. She has now learnt that I mean business and the only way she is going to either get a bedtime story or watch some TV with me is to calm down and apologise. Good luck :)

I'm glad things have calmed down

Oh I know the feeling twiglett, Today it's been all 3 of the younger ones (twins are 6 and dd4 is almost 3)

Dh is working late and we haven't done shopping today so no food in house and waiting for him to come home with pizza but this means dinner time is later and so is bed time!!!

Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!!

I am not ashamed to say, Can't wait till next week and back to school.

Someone please tell me why I am having a 5th

why oh why the drama?

if he doesnt want it - dont feed him til breakfast.

and you really should sit with them whilst they eat and not mumsnet.

talking as a family at dinner time is part of the experience. and perhaps when he realises he will get your attention by being good he will stop being naughty

amen peace out

I always sit with them whilst they eat custy .. and I always try to eat something with them .. I just had the laptop on and it was driving me screwy .. but thanks anyway

I always wonder about feeding times for English children...

5 pm strikes me as ridiculously early to eat dinner. How you can they be hungry so soon after lunch? And how do they keep going until breakfast?

I feed mine at 6 pm (well, we all eat together as a family [smug parent emoticon ]) and then if they don't eat I just say okay, and nothing more until breakfast.