Boys Wearing us Out

Last weekend, the boys were up pre-6am lighting fires in their bedroom and somehow we got away with no damage, phew! This weekend, it was the same timeframe and they both drank a full can of Pepsi and shared a can of Sprite. Soft drink is not something we encourage excessive use of in this house - especially at breakfast time. So to tackle the Soft drink obsession - once and for all - I decided to show them photos of people with brown teeth - specifically from soda damage. The images were revolting, and I hope they got the message. They certainly didn’t like looking at the pics that’s for sure.

Furthering the practice of demonstrating consequences through photos, we had another lightning bolt earlier this week. The boys admitted they were getting into electrical boxes around the condo and cutting the wires with nail scissors - AWESOME!! Why are they still alive? The electrical burn photos were a lot more gruesome than the brown teeth, and we can only hope they got THAT message after seeing a lot of charred appendages.

Is this a great way to approach things? We don’t know. We just don’t want them to die, but as they have no comprehension of death, and continue to do dangerous things, they get us to the point of taking extreme measures. It ain’t a lot of fun.

But it’s wearing us out. We want to trust them. We believe it’s extremely important for them - from a developmental perspective - to know they are trusted. We believe a child with a parents’ trust can develop strong self-confidence and self-worth.

But we can’t trust them. We give them as much space as we can to enable them to grow, but every time we step back and give them this space, something crazy happens. I don’t care if they get into trouble - in fact, it’s great when someone other than us has a word with them. But I do care when they do something that can get them killed - I really care.

Ultimately, all of this nonsense forces Steve and I to operate at an energy level that is exhausting. We can never fully relax. We can’t go to sleep in peace - especially on the weekends - because we never know what we’ll find when they/we wake up. 

Right now, it’s tougher than normal, because we’re in a “wake up before the birds” phase. That’s been a fairly consistent thing since they were born. Our boys have never slept in, but every now and again, we go through a few months where wake-up time is only hours after we go to bed. 

When this phase kicks in, there is nothing we can do about it, other than wait for it to be over (and remember our Resist Persist mantra). But it does add to the exhaustion, as the combination of crazy antics with early rises results in two weary bloody parents. Not to mention two tired, emotional little lads that do our heads in.

This parenting journey for us has not been easy - not easy at all. We adore our electrifying little dudes, but bloody hell, sometimes it would be nice if they gave us a break.

Are there any other parents out there feeling even remotely the same way? Please tell me we’re not alone?

Bloody kids I tell ya! Why can’t they just grab one of our Surfaces and watch videos like everyone else’s kids seem to do at sparrow fart?

Yours, without the bollocks

Andrea