Mean Mommy

Do you ever feel like you are a mean mommy? I am the happiest person you will ever meet. Very laid back type parenting and a very go with the flow attitude. Well, lately I have been losing my patience more than I like to admit and it eats at me. All day. Every day.

I have never been the yelling type or even “mean” but I feel like I am now. I don’t know what went wrong. Maybe the third child did me in? I’m not sure. I’m not a bad mom. I am a very good one and everyone knows that but I still can’t help but feel like a mean mommy when I accidentally snap at one of the three. The whining and crying had been OOC lately and it frustrates me, just like it does everyone else. I am learning to deal with it in a different way but sometimes I just lose my cool and will snap back at them or mock them. Which in every single case never works. And I know that but what makes us moms go off the edge sometimes? I hate hearing my mean voice. I hate hearing the words I never said I would and most of all I hate looking myself in the mirror after handling a situation by wanting to scream instead of just sitting down and talking it out.

Patience is truly a virtue. It is something we all have to learn and sometimes most people don’t learn how to be patient until we are middle aged. I am a patient person but when the whining starts and doesn’t stop makes me impatient. But I have found a way to deal with it the way I want to and need to as a mom:

• Close your eyes. 
• Count to 10. 
• Take three deep breaths.
• Sit with your children and simply ask “whats wrong?”
• If they still cry simply say “I can’t understand you when you are crying. Can you talk to me like a big girl/boy?”
• If they still cry or whine I finally say “OK, you know we aren’t suppose to cry or whine in our house. Do we need to put our whines and cries into a bucket?” I tried this today and it actually worked.
• Finally, after they’ve told you what was wrong then fix the problem. We are the parents so we CAN fix it. 
• Reward them for behaving like a big kid.
• Reward yourself for not wanting to run and lock yourself in the bathroom.