Behind the Scenes: Raising Toddlers

Thursday, November 17, 2016

I shared this picture yesterday on social media. It's perfection--my two babies loving and laughing together. Unfortunately, as we all know, life is not perfect. No one's is, as much we'd like to present it that way.
 
Raising Toddlers
 But really, life lately has not been perfect at all. It's been hard. Wyatt has really been testing me, mainly just not listening. To put it in more of a direct way, he's been defiant. Defiant, my sweet little boy??  And Stella, well, she has learned a few bad habits from school (and her big brother) that have not been so fun--hitting, pinching, grabbing. 

Y'all, I was a teacher of first graders, 22 of 'em at a time and I'm pretty sure it was easier. Unfortunately at home I can't just send them to another class or the counselor, or whatever. Nope, I have to take care of the situation, and at at the same time teach my kids to be respectful human beings. It's such a stressful job, raising these little humans. Really exhausting.


Don't get me wrong, it's not all the time. But when you're with them all day, it really feels like it is. We have started a new behavior sticker chart and so far I have seen some positive results. I hate being negative and disciplining them all the time, so I'm hoping we can turn things around and be more positive. They're both so sweet and love to give and show love, I just would like to see that more often.
 

It's hard to constantly be thinking about what you're doing and how you're doing it. Am I disciplining correctly? Did I just overreact? Are they going to remember how often they were in timeout when they're older??? I just want to raise happy, healthy, respectful people, and all we can really do is pray for the best. Pray that what we do all day as parents works the way we planned.



So anyway, that's just a little bit of reality and what's been happening behind the scenes in our house. Anyone else feeling overwhelmed with raising toddlers/kids? 





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