4 days overdue and this morning I burst into tears in front of my toddler....

[BotBotticelli]

...because he had a small shouting fit when I asked him to turn Peppa Pig off and get his shoes on for nursery :-( :-(

He promptly burst into tears too. And looked really upset.

In gave him a big cuddle and said I was sorry for getting upset but mummy is very tired etc etc.

Just feel awful now, like I am going to have seriously damaged him for life.

He was a bit subdued at nursery drop off (he loves it there and his favourite member of staff was there for cuddles so I know he will be fine). But I just feel dreadful.

I am anaemic and waiting for iron tablets prescribed yesterday to kick in - am breathless, exhausted, not sleeping, just at the end of my fecking tether and wondering why on earth I thought this second baby thing was a good idea.

Please can someone reassure me that I won't have done any lasting damage to ds1 by breaking down in tears in front of him??

(Oh he is 2.8yo if that makes a difference. Merely a baby himself)

By the time he comes back from nursery he'll have done so many things and had so much fun, he won't even remember

I've cried in front of my children. Including the toddler. It's not the end of the world.

Sorry you're feeling a bit rubbish. It won't be long now.

They need to learn that adults have emotions too, and can get sad. I am in similar position, 36 weeks pregnant and DS1 is 2 years 7 months. I have a lot of hip and back pain, and nearly started crying from pain last night when putting my DS to bed. He said "mummy, please stop crying", which was so sweet, but made me cry more. It is hard, but they are learning about life, and that adults also can be sad, upset, in pain - and this is normal. It would be more concerning if he didn't care that you started crying.

To him, crying as a response to something relatively minor happening is normal. He probably doesn't think too much of it, and the fact that he burst into tears was him showing a nice amount of empathy for his age.

Please don't give this a second thought. It's all par for the course and really not a big deal at all. and

If that's the first time you've done that you've fine amazingly, mine saw me crying and vomiting every day while I was pregnant, although he was only 9 months old when I got pregnant.

As pp says crying is such a normal thing for them he won't think anything of it. Please don't beat yourself up over it. Hope baby doesn't keep you waiting to long!

Don't beat yourself up, you responded in a way he understands.