DD is 3, will be 4 in June, and she's honestly mental. I keep thinking to myself "oh she's just spoilt, I've spoilt her" but I honestly don't think that is the case anymore. Nursery are struggling with her. They tell me every time she goes in that they've had a bad day and it's not surprising because she's is honestly feral.
She never sits still, when she does she goes off in a trance or is hyper focused on her iPad/TV. She goes what I can only describe as "loopy" ? Like she's been pumped full of drugs and is running around the house going mental. Nothing can stop her. She'll do 1 thing, by the time you've even registered what she's just done she's done another 3 things. For example, she'll throw a bunch of toys at you and by the time you opened your mouth to say "What was that for?" she's grabbed a mop running around the house swinging it about like no man's business, dropped the mop and is then jumping on the dining room table shouting every single word she can think of on the top of her lung. And it's like that, non stop until bed time and bed time is a real power struggle.
When she was a baby, literally newborn to 6 months old, if you held her she would scream and scream and scream until you put her down again. She didn't want to be held. Then she turned 6 months old and could start exploring food - nope. That girl HATES food. If she got food on her hands she would freak out. You could see the panic in that little tiny human's eyes if she had bread crumbs on her fingers or the like. Then when she turned 1, she made herself sick a million times a day. She's a covid baby (literally was born a couple of months after the first ever lockdown) so seeing a health visitor was impossible. I got a video call from them once (When they remembered she existed 1.5 years later) and all they wanted me to do was walk around my house and show them said house. Not really listen to my concerns. So I put it down as a baby thing that she would grow out of.
While she grew out of the touching food issue, she never grew out of her pickiness. She will only eat "safe" foods, and there's maybe 10 or so things on that list. She also grew out of being sick - thank god! But sleep... she's never been a good sleeper. I don't really remember her being 2 because I was so sleep deprived. I think I remember it being the longest time of my life, she felt like she was 2 forever, but I don't really remember it. Now she's 3, she will stay in her bedroom but it'll take her hours to get to sleep and then she will usually wake up in the middle of the night and laugh like a crazy person for hours and hours until she's so exhausted she passes out and then I can't wake her up for love nor money.
She's a lovely girl. I used to get told from nursery (so goes 3 days a week) that she's been so attentive, so helpful, she's cleaned up, done what they ask, kissed and hugged all the children that has fallen over.... but since Christmas, she's gone WILD. They constantly tell me she's not listening, ever. She never wants to join in with story time or circle time. They had to take her shoes off of her the other day because she wanted to kick furniture simply because it was funny and no amount of reasoning or time out would make her stop.
I really just don't know what to do with her. It's like she's getting worse. She goes to bed at 7, but stays awake in her room till midnight. She's playing with her poo all the time. It's a whole thing.
When we go outside, she does listen to me, she's finally learnt not to run away and stay close, but she will just do her own thing. If you're not watching her suddenly she's climbing fences and talking to strangers. She hates the pram, but again I blame Covid for that. We never went out until she was about 1.5/2 except for the occasional walk (I have OCD so it was a hard time for me) and by the time everything started opening up again, well, she'd look at that pram, look at me, and just think I was crazy. It was never going to happen. She also developed a fear of shops and restaurants for the longest time. Would have the biggest panic attack at the door of a shop but she's thankfully started to outgrow that.
I think she's spoilt maybe? I don't know. I find myself either shouting or bribing, and it's constant. I try to limit screen time, not that she would watch it any way, but when I desperately need her to be quiet (she has a younger brother so I need my break and need a chance to spend time with him too) I will give it to her. No more than an hour a day I would say in total. But because she doesn't eat, and we've been to a paediatrician before who says they're not concerned, I just give in to her now. I offer her the nutritional breakfast, which she doesn't eat, and then a little while later she comes looking for the crackers or the chocolates or the fruit roll ups that she likes. It's really frustrating and if I don't give her the food she will start screaming, shouting, having massive tantrums etc. She'll walk away and say "ah-hah!" when she's thought of something really naughty to do like hit her brother or break something etc.
She's also always bored. That's her excuse for everything. "Why did you draw on the walls?" "I was bored. I was bored. It's so boring down here." And you're like.... we were literally just playing with the magnetic tiles? I turned my back for a second to deal with your brother and suddenly there's pen marks all over the walls? It's that sort of thing.
I think my biggest problem is this wild behaviour. I can't cope with it. Every single day it's getting worse and worse and worse. I'm trying to be consistent with the way I tell her off but it's not getting through to her. She's literally getting uncontrollable that I might need to change tactics, ignoring her maybe? I don't know. I've never been a parent before and don't know any one who is.
She's got the HV coming next week. It's been a month since I've been waiting for this appointment. I know she can't give me an overnight fix but boy, I'm so looking forward to it. I just want someone to tell me that this is typical toddler behaviour or perhaps something is amiss and give me guidance on how to deal with it because I don't think I can cope for much longer.