Am I a bad parent?

[warren251068]

Hello, thanks for accepting me. I'm a father to 2 girls, one 18 year old and one five year old. I've found myself lately getting irritable with my youngest, she's constantly defying my wife and I, arguing with us when she's asked to do something. I'd like to be more patient but it's a struggle, is this normal or am I a bad father?

DD is normal, you're normal, and, no doubt, however your wife is dealing with it all, is normal.

you need to develop some ways of managing your irritability. getting a bit annoyed here and there is perfectly normal and isn't going to damage your relationship with DD. being permanently annoyed is.

she's pushing boundaries and your tolerance limits. you need to decide how best you and your wife are going to stand as a team and deal with this. there are millions of books that might help, or your wife may have a few techniques. either way, reply on each other and make sure you work together to manage it.

Girls of this age do this... I'm pretty sure this is something they do even when they're older.
My 4yo is exactly the same, it's something that will get easier with time, you need to learn to adjust and cope, be patient, even though it's easier said than done.

Most importantly of all is to make sure that you and your wife are on the same page, you need to come to agreements about what should be done, and shouldn't be done.

Thanks for your replies, sorry i'm new to this, what does DD mean? I think a lot of the problem is my 18 year old recently had a baby, he's now 10 months, and she still lives with us. Her partner comes and goes as he pleases and isn't much use so my wife and help out a lot, I think my 5 year old is jealous and a lot of it is for attention, knowing that doesn't make it easier to deal with though...