3yo: I want to see [cousin]
Me: We can’t, she lives too far away.
3yo: Okay, let’s get in the car now.
Me: No, like we’d be in the car all day. Plus she has school and sports, we’d barely see her.
3yo: Okay… I want to see Cookie Monster.
Me: I don’t know where he lives.
3yo: He lives at Sesame Street.
🙃
Well played, kid. Well played.
I’m not trying to shame anyone by any means. I was an angry parent but recognized it right when my kid turned 3 (bc we all know three is when they turn into monsters 😂). I yelled way too often but quickly realized I needed to work on myself because I remember the way my dad made me feel when I was young…getting yelled at all the time. And let me tell you, yelling only works till they’re preteens. If you don’t have your kids’ respect, they stop caring about you yelling and being angry by then and then you’ll be in for a real wild ride in their teens.
This came to mind because my dad keeps asking me for money (I made a post but deleted it because I responded to him), but telling him how I felt, even though I was nice about it, made me almost have a panic attack when I’ve only ever had a couple in my life that were driving related. I can’t even tell my dad how I feel because I’m afraid of his reaction and I’ve been an adult for 16 years…he hasn’t yelled at me in 16 years and I’m still afraid of that reaction.
So please…I’m still working on myself and I’ve come a hell of a long way, but if you find yourself being the angry parent, ***please*** do the work to get better. This was a wake up call for me to keep working on myself.