Well the last 2 days have been challenging to say the least!!
Yesterday I had to go to Merry Hill shopping centre because I have some money on a prepayment account with Dove Spa and I had a letter to say it was closing on the 17th so needed to go and book an appointment. Typically when I got there, there was a sign to say they were no longer closing!!
Also typically I ended up going up again today to see Octonauts and to go to Quest play area cos it was half price so could have done what I needed to do yesterday, today.
We get on the bus and go upstairs and there's a lady sat on the front right window seat. This he is fine with but he wants to stand up in front of the seat right next to her. I was worried he was going to annoy her so I kept trying to move him over to the other 2 front seats. He has a screaming fit and the lady offers to swap thankfully.
First shop we go in (Poundworld) I could have turned around and gone home again. Putting everything in the basket, tantrumming when I take it out. I let him have Wotsits cos they were 3 bags for £2. Then halfway around the shop I discover Quavers and Squares are also on the offer so I put 2 of the Wotsits back and swap them. DS doesn't like S&V crisps so has a paddy keep trying to take the Squares out. I explain "Tough Mummy's paying, and Mummy likes Squares. You like Wotsits and Quavers." Then I remember I've forgotten toilet cleaner so I tell him to wait where he is whilst I go and get some. All is good and he's still there when I get back. We go to pay and the Squares have disappeared. He's taken them out without me seeing so I go back and get some more.
A few shops later we go to Primark as I need some babywipes. Queues not too long (for Primark) and moving quickly so I decide to queue rather than using the disabled till point. Bad idea!! He still gets fed up queuing and keeps trying to kick this sweet teenage girl in front. She was lovely and kept saying it was OK bless her. In the end when the queue moved I had to stay where we were restraining him with a big gap in front of us so he couldn't keep kicking her.
Then we go to get the bus to the park. Sometimes he likes to sit on the 2 very front single seats. He hadn't actually mentioned it until a girl in front asked her Nanny if she could sit at the very front. When we get on a mum and son are sat on those 2 seats so we get another screaming fit. He's goes like a dead weight, dangling from his armpits. He's 7 now and quite heavy so I managed to get him as far as the buggy zone still screaming when the lady offers to move. I'm not sure but I think the family in the buggy zone (with the girl who orginally asked about the front seat) are looking unimpressed.
We go to the park and he's mostly fine, just a bit of obsessing over the water fountain filling the dog bowl up and tipping it on the floor. People have been a bit funny about this in the past but luckily there was no one using it today.
Then we walk into town and go to the sweet shop. Bit hectic with him, my friend's 8 year old who is in a wheelchair and keeps trying to pick up all the sweets and lick them, a 5 year old and a 3 year old but not too eventful. Then we go to the bank and him and my friend's 8 year old are enchanted by the automatic door opening and closing. But then my son goes to open it whilst it is trying to close. I heard an unhealthy noise come from it but didn't hang about waiting to see if it was OK.
We get the bus home and as it is coming up to the stop DS goes to press the bell but someone beats him to it. Another meltdown, lashes out at a girl waiting to get off the bus and then in his temper bangs the plastic window where the driver is. Driver tuts as we get off.
Needless to say I was pretty exhausted by the time I got to work at 5pm. I vented to DP when I got home but he wasn't very supportive, saying I'm not strict enough with him, why did I take him to sweet shop after he'd been naughty, he's never naughty when he takes him shopping because he's firm and knows where he stands and he never looses his hand ever so he doesn't get the chance to be naughty. The difference being if DP takes him shopping they go in the car and they go to about 2 shops!
I had a feeling today was going to be another difficult one because he was crying this morning over the smallest of things and seemed tired even by 10am.
We go to use the lift in BHS cos my friend's son (different friend from yesterday) needed the toilet and she had a pushchair. The lift's broken so she asks me to wait with the baby whilst she goes up the escalator. After she leaves, DS spots the red emergency stop button on the escalator and keeps trying to run off to press it. We are waiting probably about 10 minutes for my friend so in this time he does manage to get to it before me a few times, maybe 3 or so. Normally I would have left the shop as soon as he tried to do it the first time but I was waiting for my friend and I didn't have a phone so she wouldn't have known where I was so had to wait where she'd left us. Whilst I'm trying to stop him from running off he's kicking, lashing out, pinching, biting, screaming, shouting. There's people from all over the shop turning around to look. I'm even getting dirty looks from the staff who have to keep turning the escalators back on. One well-meaning lady tries to calm him down by saying there's a police man outside watching and asking what all this fuss is about and saying that his little brother (she just assumed the baby was mine) is wondering what's going on (don't really agree with threatening with policemen but I know she meant well and I think she was trying to make me feel better as well) Off she goes and then another lady goes up the escalator and turns around to stare, by this point I'm at the end of my tether and I am afraid to say I did shout up the escalator to her "Yes, have a good look."
We go to KFC for lunch and he asks for Pepsi. Normally that's a no but I didn't have the energy for another meltdown like that so Pepsi was allowed.
Then we go to Quest. He isn't too bad, have to intervene a few times because he went on the junior ropes course but it was full to capacity and he kept getting frustrated that if he was half way across one of the bridges and someone came across from the other direction he had to turn around and go back. (They have harnesses that are clipped to rail above their head that move around with them but there's not room for one clip to overtake another one IYSWIM) He also got a bit obsessed with parts of the bridges that you could lift up and kept lifiting them up and trying to lash out if someone put it back down so they could get across. He's not very confident at all physically and panicked if I let go and didn't hold his hand. After we had been there about an hour he goes back on the junior ropes course when it's quieter (only about 3 or 4 kids on it). I'm playing with my friend's baby who is getting a bit whingy and I look around and he's doing it all on his own and not asking for help at all!! Think we will go back around teatime next time because he was much less overwhelmed and frustrated when it was quieter and he was much more confident.
Sorry for the essay guys!! I haven't even bothered to vent to DP tonight after last night so needed to let it out on here.