screaming at kids please help me get out of this

[boglach]

I have just been screaming at my kids and threatened to rip up the eldest's advent calender now i know this isn't great but we have been cooped up with the weather and they will not stop fighting. they are 5 and 2. i am not normally so shouty. any tips?

Loud disco music and dance around all of you like loons, disperses the tension gets rid of energy, makes Mummy fun again! Breathre and ignore them when they kick off too. I used to hide in a cupbaord under the stairs a la Harry Potter sometimes when mine (now 5 & 9) were driving me nuts!

You are only human we all lose it from time to time. Can you wrap them up and send them in the garden to play or stuff the housework and spend more time playing with them. I find the more stuff i feel I have to get done the more stressed I get and that if I stop and give more time to DS the world seems a happier place. Like the idea of disco music will try that one

Yes get out no matter what the weather (ds can only just walk and got blown over by the wind here today), it makes you glad to get back in if nothing else.

How about christmas preperation stuff - pom pom decorations, biscuits, paper chains etc.

Get them to make a den with blankets over the table and have tea party in there. They might even pretend to go to sleep for a while!

Ask the 5 yr old to make a list of stuff they'd like to do (and the 2 yr old if they have enough words). Obviously you can discount anything too mad or expensive but might work.

I m embarrassed to admit I told mine that i would run away to another family yesterday! whilst shouting bout the fact that they decided to 'mop' the floor for me (ie wet mop bucket of water and sopping hallway and kitchen)

but they did have fun! Felt like an awful mummy though.
anyway i ve stuck a list of stuff on the fridge for the days I m too tired to be think of stuff

fill up the sink/bath give them cups etc and bubbles - let them at it
Painting
(handprints/ foot prints or painting themselves especially fun)
making christmas cards or pics to go with the cards to family and friends etc)
tent (we have a wigwam they get endless fun out of )
lego
baking (jam drops especially great - they measure and then mix and help roll out the dough balls then have fun pressing thumb prints into them and adding in the jam into the middle - especially fun if you have lime raspberry and apricot jam for traffic light biccies - then we play stop go game)

Egg and spoon - set from ELC of plastic eggs and spoon - we create a track and they have to follow it around and 'win ' race - then have fun with the 'medal' presentation - (make medal on a ribbon- card covered with infoil or painted with glitter)
obstacle course
hide and seek and sardines
indoor football/ rugby etc - ds (4.5) very into this atm - he pretends he s the captain and is scoring etc - If I m busy we turn on 'pretend' tv in the kitchen so I can 'see' him playing the match that way I can do my tasks while he s playing his match (make a big deal of him leaving wishing him luck etc then when hte 'returns' ask him all about the game etc ..... suppose he s seen this with his Dad)
Also similar with ds pretending to run races/ marathons/ triathlons... but he gets to pick the activities i.e - swimming (on kitchen floor) scooting and hopping - the 'course' is mapped out before hand .... needless to say the 2 yr old is mostly following ds lead but it s good fun and physical for them.

Jumping on beds

dress up

dvd s

hmm would love more age appropraite art n craft type -y activities....

"Ask the 5 yr old to make a list of stuff they'd like to do" At 5 years old most children are just learning the alphabet and beginning to learn how to write.

At 5 years old most children are just learning the alphabet and beginning to learn how to write.

Really! Wow!

I said make a list not write a list. I meant ask them for their ideas and you write it down as they tell you. Then you can go through the list together and decide what is do-able. Its from 'How to Talk...' and is suggested for even quite small children.

Theseventhdwarf that is a great list and I will pinch it if you don't mind! My mind always goes blank, plus dd2 is not old enough yet to play with dd1 so I always feel I'm abandoning one of them, if not both.
OP I am a shouter too, trying not to be, a good tip from someone else on here was always to imagine there is someone filming you! Supernanny style!