What ridiculous and unreasonable things do you do to avoid a stressy meltdown?

[AtYourCervix]

I am about to put on my shoes and drive to bloody tesco to buy DD some mints.

She is completely addicted to extra sugar free mints. She eats an awful lot of them.

This stems from her reading on the internet about a year ago that sucking mints stops you feeling sick. She feels sick all the time. So now she must eat mints all the time while not actually feeling any better and still moans that she feels sick all the time.

Anyway, deep breath, She has run out of mints. This is, of course, my fault. The packet I hid as standby appears to have gone missing.

She actually went into school this afternoon so is now in a foul stressy mood anyway and needs the bloody mints.

So I am going to go and get some because if I dont she will be extra vile and upset and argumentative and orrid all evening. Of course I could not go, but that would make her worse.

Please make me feel better and tell me I am not the only one who does stuff like this?

I'm not even starting to ennumerate the quirky things I have done in the quest for a quiet life.

Whatever works. I strictly reserve my battles for genuinely life-threatening situations nowadays.

I think of it as an act of charity to the judgy pant brigade, who can see plenty in my public interactions with my children about which they can get deliciously huffy.

I made a huge mistake before christmas. My ds (7)wanted a vtech innotab he has to have vtech everything! I managed to get one and had decided to put batteries in and see if anything needed setting up before wrapping it. I then the globe app that ds had seen in the ads was not on it but you have to download it so went out to the kitchen where I had a blue sd card in one of the drawers but could not find it so spent the rest of the night looking gave up and ordered one from amazon so packed the innotab up put back in the brown cardboard box that it had been delivered in to leave it on the lounge floor. Next morning dd finds said box excitedly tells ds santa has been and left an innotab I then had to explain that I had left it out for the elves to pick up but there had been a storm in the night so they hadn't been able to pick it up cue a huge meltdown which resulted in me phoning the elves at the north pole ( ds aunty) so ds could speak to the chief elf who negotiated that if ds left the innotab under the tree the elves would come and pick it up that day when the house was empty but they would leave a small present in its place. I finally managed to get ds into school at about 10.30 that day!!!
I also had to rearrange the playmobil police advent calendar so he could have all the signs, barriers that he wanted first as he could see by the picture on the front what was in the calendar the poor thief who he got that first morning got put back in the calendar 3 times. I have vowed never to get a playmobil calendar again!

ommmward, the trouble is that the judgy-panted see our efforts as "pandering" so we can't bloody win. My Dad was a great one for telling us to just give DS a hard smack, leave him to scream all night and other barbaric approaches and now that my Mum has dementia and he gets infuriated, I often remind him that pandering is sometimes necessary and that he wouldn't dream of smacking a vulnerable loved one who couldn't help the way they experience the world.

DS has now added four rounds of, "Goosey Goosey Gander" to the bedtime routine but it's sweet. He said today, "oh, NO, naughty goose, you shouldn't throw people down stairs!" which made me laugh.

That and running full pelt from my ex-bed where he "sleeps" with DH to where I am trying to sleep on a mattress on the floor of DD's room at three a.m giggling and telling me all about his day at school

This too will pass

Give one very hefty 4 yr old endless piggybacks because it makes him laugh (and plus its like getting a hug from behind, saddo)

IAte, appreciate your hug from behind comment, and I offer you "The Put My Back to the Telly Hug", where DS will cuddle me for hours if he has a clear view of Dora over my shoulder!

Gotta be sneaky to get those snuggles

Sit in the back seat of the car when all four of us are going out somewhere and I'm not driving. I hate it, makes me carsick, can't chat with DH, etc. But the the horror of being in lowly, backseat position (aka, being A CHILD NOT AN ADULT) drives DS (7) into such an epic meltdown that we've just had to back down. Believe me, we tried to stand firm but utter misery ensued to the point that we never wanted to go anywhere as a family. My back is sporting several of these rods feels like I have no choice.

Sing the grand old duke of York for 20 solid minutes every night before bed. Drive round the same round about ten times. Let ds go everywhere on a pushchair. Never wear three quarter length sleeves because the notion of sleeves that don't go down to your wrists is beyond ds..........

I have to agree with your DS on the three-quarter sleeves. They would freak me right out to wear (sensory issues) but then I probably wouldn't mind them on other people.

I spent ages preparing his new school uniform bearing in mind the plaintive bleating of, "oh no, a label, a label" and writing his name in black marker on all the sweaters and polo shirts etc and then he decided that he didn't actually mind labels on school uniform because they had his name on and he now refuses to wear any top which doesn't have the school logo on.

Worth a try zzzzz, definitely. Thanks!

Yes he hates three quarter sleeves on himself and others. I remember his first proper melt down as a toddler because I had rolled his sleeves up at dinner time.