Where has my sense of humour gone with my 3 year old?

[pjsgalore]

Tonight I came back from putting my 10 month old DD to bed, to discover my 3.5 DS had sprayed water from the hosepipe in the garden through the french doors directly into his playroom (the conservatory), leaving huge puddles of water over the floor and drenching all his toys and the carpet - and he had then put his wellies on and was jumping in the puddles. And I totally lost it. Well, shouted at him, said he couldn't watch bed-time TV etc and said I was sick of him being so naughty.

It's the kind of thing I'd recall with humour, but I feel like lately I've gone from being a fun, laughy, chilled out mum to one who's quick to anger and quite shouty. 80% (well, maybe 60!) of the time he's so lovely, but in the last few months he just seems to purposely do things he knows will infuriate me. And I literally get soooo cross and loudly shouty!

Is 3 a particularly difficult age in anyone's opinion? Or is it me who's just not being as relaxed as I once was?

I think 3, coupled with a baby is a really tricky time. I used to pride myself on how outwardly calm I was with DD1 but that has gone out of the window since DD2 came along!

TBH, spraying water inside is a pretty big crime. Very different from crayon on the wall or tipping a box of cereal onto the floor. I don't know anyone who would react to that with smiles.

I just make sure I stop and apologise to DD1 if I have been particularly snappy. She appreciates this and I feel better too. It doesn't stop the snappiness from happening but it eases the guilt.

Thank you Jimmy, I feel better after reading your response.

As I was down on my hands and knees after putting him to bed, mopping up the water (when I had been planning on flopping down on the sofa with a glass of wine) I was literally mumbling 'you little sh*t'!

Apologising does make you feel better. Although actually that was a bit of a crime, so quite frankly why should I apologise for that!

God, guilt is a killer. I spend half my life feeling guilty, then remembering how ridiculously lucky my children are compared to most of the children in the world. There was a really good TED talk recently about parents, and how we feel so crazily responsible for keeping our kids happy all the time. I think I need to watch it again!

The thing about funny child antics is that they're funny after you're done dealing with the situation.