I am really and truly feeling like a failure as a parent right now. Here are the factors that are making me feel this way:
- have a 3.5 year old daughter and a one month old son. Parenting two kids is so incredibly hard - harder than I ever imagined. I am having a hard time figuring out how to constantly hold, nurse, diaper change, etc. for him at the same time as taking care of my daughter. She is used to having me 100% and her frustrations are really starting to show. She will often say "don't nurse the baby, wash my hands".
- having my DD try to get so involved with the baby that she often wakes him up, bonks his head, accidentally kick, etc. Like if I'm nursing him to sleep on the bed, then she HAS to get up and get in right beside him. It's frustrating because it's VERY hard to get him to sleep anyway, and this just adds extra frustration for me.
- having my DD hitting and kicking my husband and I and using words like "go away, I don't like you". We talk to her by saying things like "hands are not for hitting, hitting isn't friendly, hitting makes me feel unsafe, etc." We ask her why she is hitting or kicking. She will say stuff like "because she wanted the whole wheat cheddar bunnies rather than the regular ones, etc." Once we talk about this stuff, she will promise never to do those things again, only to do them again the next day.
- having my DD hitting and kicking with all her friends (they all seem to be doing this). All of my friend's childrens parent the way I do - GD, plans to homeschool, co-sleeping, etc. And I think we're all sort of scratching our heads with what to do (but I questioned about this in another post).
At the end of each day (and usually this starts early in the day), I feel so spent that I just want to go to sleep and never wake up. My back aches beyond belief. I'm starting to feel like I'm a horrible parent who just can summon enough energy to only read books to my DD. And it's so darn hot out these days (almost 100 all day long with crazy humidity) that getting outside with the kids feels unbearable, so I know she's not able to burn enough energy.
I don't know how people do it. I don't know how I WILL do it. I feel pretty much helpless these days.
- have a 3.5 year old daughter and a one month old son. Parenting two kids is so incredibly hard - harder than I ever imagined. I am having a hard time figuring out how to constantly hold, nurse, diaper change, etc. for him at the same time as taking care of my daughter. She is used to having me 100% and her frustrations are really starting to show. She will often say "don't nurse the baby, wash my hands".
- having my DD try to get so involved with the baby that she often wakes him up, bonks his head, accidentally kick, etc. Like if I'm nursing him to sleep on the bed, then she HAS to get up and get in right beside him. It's frustrating because it's VERY hard to get him to sleep anyway, and this just adds extra frustration for me.
- having my DD hitting and kicking my husband and I and using words like "go away, I don't like you". We talk to her by saying things like "hands are not for hitting, hitting isn't friendly, hitting makes me feel unsafe, etc." We ask her why she is hitting or kicking. She will say stuff like "because she wanted the whole wheat cheddar bunnies rather than the regular ones, etc." Once we talk about this stuff, she will promise never to do those things again, only to do them again the next day.
- having my DD hitting and kicking with all her friends (they all seem to be doing this). All of my friend's childrens parent the way I do - GD, plans to homeschool, co-sleeping, etc. And I think we're all sort of scratching our heads with what to do (but I questioned about this in another post).
At the end of each day (and usually this starts early in the day), I feel so spent that I just want to go to sleep and never wake up. My back aches beyond belief. I'm starting to feel like I'm a horrible parent who just can summon enough energy to only read books to my DD. And it's so darn hot out these days (almost 100 all day long with crazy humidity) that getting outside with the kids feels unbearable, so I know she's not able to burn enough energy.
I don't know how people do it. I don't know how I WILL do it. I feel pretty much helpless these days.
