Strong words I know, but it's how I feel. They (5 and 7) argue constantly and try to embroil me in conflict resolution although I usually tell them to resolve it themselves.
They bicker and compete for love and attention and each claims I love the other more (I think I am pretty even handed as it happens)...everything is grossly unfair - apparently dd's portion of food is fractionally bigger than ds' or ds has had a longer bed time story (!!!). Sounds trivial but when it's the hundreth trumped up complaint of the day it gets you down.
DD seems to want to goad me and wind me up. She'll just take it upon herself to bar my way upstairs if I am going up to fetch something, or bar the entrance to the living room or just obstruct me for the sheer hell of it...She has explained that her brother winds her up and gets her agitated so she has to therefore get it out of her system by winding me up (!!!). This is not good - I have very little patience and end up raging at her and subsequently feel guilty for shouting.
I'm not a push over and can be quite strict. I set boundaries. But the children are very very testing atm. I actually went up to bed this afternoon and left them to dh, because I couldn't bear to be with them any longer.
Just needed to offload