Struggling with 3yr old

[Spingroll16]

Hi all

I love my 3yr old step son, but I am also 28 weeks pregnant and exhausted. He is a lovely little boy, however from the moment he gets up, to the moment he goes to sleep he talks NONE stop. He doesn't have naps anymore either, so there is no peace/quiet time at all during 8am and 8pm...

He will talk about everything and anything, and well I know this is brilliant and his speech is brilliant for 3yrs old, I am finding it draining!

He asks questions for everything, even if he knows the answers! Which I find realllllyyyy draining! I don't know how to approach it, encourage quiet time or what? Literally don't know what to do!

He'll see you come out of the shower, and have to ask 'You had a shower' which is fine, but he needs to repeat himself over and over, sometimes he will say something 10 times!

I don't think being pregnant and exhausted is helping my patience, but have read on here before about other kids being the same... So thought I'd ask how you all cope!!

TBH my 3 year old son is the same.... I dont know what the answer is. I have tried offering him £1 to be quiet for 2 mins but he cant hold it in that long!!

Ah, yes... Pregnant with a three year old is very hard work! My son is in nursery three mornings a week but even then I was constantly exhausted. Do you get time to rest?

The good news is it's so much easier with a newborn!

With my daughter (who sometimes naps) we do rest time where she spends just over an hour in her room after lunch. She can sleep (and sometimes does) but she has a box of quiet toys to play with.
We also watch some TV for extra downtime before dinner.

Would either of those give you some breathing space?

Sympathy, I'm not pregnant and find my 3 year old tiring!

I have a 3 year old mindee like this. She is the sweetest little girl but asks questions... constantly. What I find really irritating is when she asks me a question, but has already moved on to another one by the time I have formulated an answer. She will ask a question over and over and over, and then when I answer her she will talk over me with something else.
I always welcome questions from all the mindees, but sometimes I have said to her 'I have already answered that question X, so I'm not going to answer it again', and then ignore her if she continues to ask the same question (she usually doesn't), or I will say 'Oh X, I wasn't finished talking then, let me finish and then you can ask your other question' and she will. She is actually a really humorous, funny little girl that I genuinely enjoy spending time with but she just has those days, like all children do I suppose!
Sometimes when I have several children I will ask the older child to tell us a story, or sing a song, just so that I can have a few minutes question free from X

He is my step son, so we have him every weekend. I suppose in the week is my rest time, although I am usually exhausted from work then! I do appreciate I have it easy compared to people who have their children all the time!

My DH said to me the other night 'oh he shuts up after you've answered him first, instead of ignoring him' but this isn't true, he only goes onto pester me about something else. I mention ignoring, this is usually when he is asking questions to something he knows the answer to, he requires constant reassurance and its just totally draining!

Even though he is my DH's son, I've brought him up since he was 8 months old. Myself and his dad are all he has ever know, and his mum and her Fiancee are all he's ever known too. He comes to me all the time, he says that I'm his other mummy..

Even at meal times for example, he will take literally over an hour to eat the most simple basic things, he talks with his mouth full all the time. He spends that long chatting, (what is that in the garden) (look at the sign on the wall) basically just stalling for him, it is making me seriously irritable! Do all 3yr olds stall for time at dinner times? finds anything to talk about ... but delays the whole eating process because he already is chatting about random crap!

Sorry this is turning into a rant, I just am so exhausted, I find weekends exhausting when they should be enjoyable, and I don't know how to approach.. His dad, my DH has no idea either... he seems to be able to block him out easily! Poor lad knows that too, so will always come to me!

Hopefully its a phase. Ours never stops and as you say if you don't answer the question they repeat it and if you do answer they move on to something else. You can't win either way... Sometimes I insist he help DH with gardening etc so I get 2 mins to think alone!

Oh my son was like this! The repeating! The best technique I found was to ask a question back, get him thinking, otherwise he just went on and on and on. So if he says about you having a shower. Say yes, can you smell my shower gel? For example. It's bloody exhausting but it does end.

Also I found giving him small tasks. Just anything to keep him occupied and less annoying!

Three is a really hard age.