So I’ve been feeling stressed out and physically run down and I may have figured out what it is. Maybe I feel stressed out because Rowan has had a tantrum almost every day the past week, usually right when I get home or back from the errand. It’s always completely irrational, bordering on the psychotic. Tonight it was due to sausages.
Yes, over the weekend when Rowan had been staying with Grandma and Grandpa and she had some sausages and liked them. I don’t buy meat that often, but I was grocery shopping and bought some breakfast links. Got home, everything was fine, she was playing quietly and watching Wonder Pets. She asked if I had gotten some hot dogs, and I replied no, but I had bought some sausages and to give me a moment to cook a few up.
Then, pretty much the moment I put the raw, uncooked sausages in a cold pan, she decided she wanted sausages–RIGHT NOW. And it wasn’t like she worked herself up. It was like a switch went off–the switch from a normal 3-year to a berserk Exorcist Demon Child. Suddenly, it was “WAHHH I WANT SAUSAGES! MOM MOM I WANT SAUSAGES AUGGHHH” (I’m paraphrasing here)
Of course, telling her that they would have to cook, possibly for a whole 10-15 minutes was pure torture, as her intestines had become a black hole of hunger in the space of 15 seconds.
So, she kept it up. I turned off the tv, no tv for Demon Child in my home. She kicked me. I gave her a time out. After the time out, I went to check up on her, and I had made the unforgivable mistake of putting my hair in a ponytail, so I wouldn’t shed like dog on the sausages. “MOOMMMM, TAKE THAT THING OUT OF YOUR HAIR I WANT IT OUUTTT.”
More screaming, more kicking, another time out. When to check on her again, “MOOMMMM, THE LIGHT ON THE LIVING ROOM IS OUT, TURN IT ON, TURN IT ONNN!”
Another time out. This time, I just left her. She kept going,
“MOOMMM, I HAVE TO GO POTTY, MOM MOM MOM!!!”
“MOOMMM, I HURT MY FOOT, MOMMMMM!” (This would be from kicking the dining room chairs.)
“MOOMMM, I’M THIRSTY, MOM MOM MAMA MAMA.”
45 minutes later, she calmed down enough that she did use the potty and eat some (now cold, albeit cooked) sausages.
But the true irony was that after supper, Leif was putting dishes in the dishwasher and teasing Rowan. I don’t know what it was in response to, but she said lightheartedly, “Drop the drama, Dad!”
Oh the wonderful things to look forward to 😦
Hang in there. Wish I had any parental wisdom to offer…
I turned off the tv, no tv for Demon Child in my home.
too funny