The monkey has been a royal you-know-what lately in the bedtime department. It didn’t help that my mother while visiting this week threw him off schedule by letting him nap until 5 pm on Thursday. But even before that he’s been extra needy at bedtime and has come up with new “stall tactics”.
The other night while trying to get him into bed, he first asked for some water. Then he had to use the potty. Then he wanted another book. THEN he said, “I need to trim my nails.” WHAT?! Wow, I was amused and pissed at the same time. Where does a two year old learn these things?
Other trickery he’s been up to … One of my common positive responses to Monkey’s requests is “That’s fine.” So now he’s decided he’ll ask and answer for me. For instance:
MONKEY: Can I have animal crackers?
MONKEY: That’s fine. (before I even get a chance to answer — this is in cases where he darn well knows I’m not going to give him any)
He’s also developed some very bad behaviors which are really starting to annoy us. The one neither of us can get over is the wall banging thing when he doesn’t get his way or doesn’t want to do something. He’s taken to smashing his toy cars into the wall repeatedly (leaving little dents and marks). Then last night, because he didn’t want to go to bed, he sat at the bottom of stairs crying and screaming. Amidst the tantrum, DH and I heard banging (assuming it was the car again), then I heard what I thought was him falling on the stairs. Well, no, it wasn’t him falling. He had taken the red step stool we have in our powder room near the bottom of the stairs and threw it at the wall TWICE, leaving larger dents and very distinct red marks on the wall.
DH has asked where he is getting this from and I’m hoping it’s not me. I have been known to throw things when angry but I haven’t been that angry recently to encourage or teach this behavior to Monkey. I do slam doors sometimes. But I’ve been trying to check this behavior of my own because I realize he’s a little sponge. In my defense, my tantrums don’t take on the rock star status that Monkey’s has been lately. But oh I wish I could explain to him why putting dents in the wall is different but in the end it just isn’t really. So in this regard, I can pinpoint the source (I think) and I need to correct it.
I think it might just be the state of being two.
Sasha has been doing the same thing (and if no toy is available he hits and kicks the wall), which is why I’ve put off repainting any more rooms right now.
I have been known to chuck a glass or stray peice of furniture across a room, but not since years before I was even pregnant. So the kiddo didn’t learn it from me. Hitting, throwing, and kicking are classic acts of frustration in the lil’ ones.
I’ve taken a track my parents did with us. Give him something he can use to smack the living daylights out of the wall with that won’t hurt anything. My parents gave us sponge bats (we’d wail on each other), but since right now the issue is the wall and furniture, I’ve bought him rubber spatulas. He can slap the walls, floor, or table with them and it won’t do damage. We have a strict “No hitting people or animals” policy, but under conditions there’s nothing wrong with venting on a slab of wood.
We can be perfect and they still do all sorts of bad things. This is the hard part of parenting; nothing excuses their wrong behavior, and we have to teach them self-control (while all the time working on our own!). It doesn’t go away for a long time unfortunately.