Sunday, February 05, 2006

There's a MONSTER in my house!


This morning, I woke up to the sound of yelling, and there was my normally-amiable three-year-old son, standing in our doorway. Half in tears, and stamping his feet, he shouted, "Get up NOW Mummy!". As I refuse to be dictated to by someone who is not yet a metre tall and still sucks his thumb, I tried to get the little guy to calm down, without leaping up obediently. No luck.

Ben loves to go get the morning paper from our yard, so we asked if he wanted to go do that. "Yes, but NO ONE can come with me," he fumed. He stomped to the front door, burst into fresh tears when the door wouldn't open for him, then went wailing out to the side where the paper always lands. I'm sure the neighbours think we use our child as slave labour - all they would have seen was a sobbing boy trailing tearfully out to get the newspaper.

At long last Ben is calm again. Half an hour of TV watching seemed to give him time to compose himself (and time for us to sigh with relief that the awful noise had ceased!) He's now eating cereal and even smiling.

I've heard about 'getting up on the wrong side of the bed'.... now I've seen the kid version of this!

10 comments:

Motherkitty said...

Whoa! What happened? He must have had a nightmare of something. I'm glad he finally calmed down and I'm sure your nerves were jangled a bit with this outburst so early in the morning. Glad all's well now.

I don't know about where you are, but our blogger was out all day for some reason. It seems to be "fixed" now, though. I sort of had withdrawal symptoms all day by not being able to get online. What a weird feeling.

TUFFENUF said...

They are a bundle of emotion at that age. Good job on the redirecting instead of jumping right up. If they know that a tantrum gets what they want, they will use it again. Three is a challenging age, isn't it?

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

Am I glad to be back online...our blogger has been off until just a few minutes ago and you're the only blog I have been able to log onto.
I have been having withdrawal symtoms all day wondering...what if I never get to connect with my blogger friends again? A terrible feeling.

Whew...now about YOUR post. Apparently 3yr.olds can get up on the wrong side of the bed too and as tuffenut said, good job of redirecting him...instead of following his commands/demands.

Jellyhead said...

Thanks for your supportive comments everybody!

And yes, I've also been unable to access any blogs today, right from just after publishing this post, until just recently. Must be another of those mysterious 'blogger problems'!

Unknown said...

Oh boy, what a way to be woken! It is just the age - so emotional. Glad he calmed down and I hope you all had a good day :)

Moogie said...

Yikes! What a rough morning! I'm glad he calmed down for you. Meelie is much like that most mornings. She's not a morning girl. I tend to get her up about 10 minutes early, sit her on the recliner and turn on the tv. Then no one talks to her or looks at her (if they know what's good for them) and after that, she's fine. ;)

manababies said...

Yeah I don't understand these emotional outbursts. But then I'm sure my kids can say the same thing about me :P

Val said...

Oh, not a monster, surely! Sounds perfectly normal to me, and he just wants to help.

Of course, I went all narky at MY Ben (19 year old) when I got home at lunch time today after a weekend in the country, and he was still in his dressing gown (uni holidays are too damn long!). Needless to say, the list of chores I gave him to do were not done. Grrrr

Michelle said...

Only one monster...and just for a few hours.....you got off lightly!!!!

Kerri said...

Kids are such clever dictators, aren't they? My 4 yr old grandson is very bossy to his parents sometimes and his almost 2 yr old brother is learning fast. His mum & dad do their very best to stay on top of it but it's a full-time job. All you can do is keep establishing the pecking order :) He sounds adorable and fun to have around (most of the time:)