ARGH! I'm not the world's quietest person in the best of times 
, but the past month has turned me into a yeller. I'm hoping some wise mothers on here can help snap me out of it. I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old. They are both delightful, happy people a lot of the time, especially when they are getting the full attention of a parent. But when they are together, and there is just one parent (usually me), it has become a nightmare.
DD (the 2 year old) is only very slowly gaining language, so she gets frustrated by that. And she is going through a phase where everything is "mine mine mine." Every time DS (the 5 year old) breathes, or picks up something interesting, she starts whining "no MA! Stop Ma!" (Ma is what she calls him). Now, admittedly, DS has developed many ways to be annoying lately... tapping under the table constantly, getting just a little too far into DD's space, etc. But I feel like I'm always snapping at him, because he's the person I can actually get to stop. Until I finally just LOSE IT, which I've done a couple of times, and yell at them both and make them go to different rooms. Where they both cry, and it doesn't work.
What actually led me to post was hearing all this as an observer last night. I was really, really sick, and was lying in bed trying not to vomit while DH handled both kids. The whining and picking was just awful, and while DH is more patient than I am, he was getting pretty testy by bedtime. We need help!
Clearly, we've gotten into a dysfunctional pattern. Any suggestions for breaking out of it?
, but the past month has turned me into a yeller. I'm hoping some wise mothers on here can help snap me out of it. I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old. They are both delightful, happy people a lot of the time, especially when they are getting the full attention of a parent. But when they are together, and there is just one parent (usually me), it has become a nightmare.DD (the 2 year old) is only very slowly gaining language, so she gets frustrated by that. And she is going through a phase where everything is "mine mine mine." Every time DS (the 5 year old) breathes, or picks up something interesting, she starts whining "no MA! Stop Ma!" (Ma is what she calls him). Now, admittedly, DS has developed many ways to be annoying lately... tapping under the table constantly, getting just a little too far into DD's space, etc. But I feel like I'm always snapping at him, because he's the person I can actually get to stop. Until I finally just LOSE IT, which I've done a couple of times, and yell at them both and make them go to different rooms. Where they both cry, and it doesn't work.
What actually led me to post was hearing all this as an observer last night. I was really, really sick, and was lying in bed trying not to vomit while DH handled both kids. The whining and picking was just awful, and while DH is more patient than I am, he was getting pretty testy by bedtime. We need help!
Clearly, we've gotten into a dysfunctional pattern. Any suggestions for breaking out of it?
