Picture this: A worn out woman leaves work in a hurry to go pick up her children from day care. She picks up her kids, both of whom are very happy to see her. As she gets ready to leave day care and go home she tells her son to hold her hand cause its time to go bye bye. Her son falls on the floor and starts sobbing... After a lot of effort she finally gets him to the door, lets go of his hand to open it and he falls on the floor again. She says "get up, lets go bye bye". He says no! After being watched by several employees like she beats her child at home or something, a teacher picks him up and helps her to the car. THE END.

That is what my day looked like from about 5:30 to 5:45 this evening. Its new. He just started doing it. Great that he loves day care! That makes me very happy! Not so great that he feels like temper tantrums are the best way to act in any situation however. He's never been a tantrum throwing kid. So I'll blame it on the other kids influence. (Always better to blame other peoples parenting skills then your own) I'm kidding!

But seriously, it was like night and day. He wasn't doing this yesterday or last week. All of the sudden it started. And to be completely honest, I'm not quite sure how to nip this one in the bud. With a baby in my arms and a defiant toddler throwing a fit on the floor, it doesn't leave me a lot of options.

I guess its something I just need to makes sure I'm folowling through on when I'm correcting at home. The best advice I've had on the subjuct so far was, "its better to be tough now and show them the right way to act, then to recorrect later." Thanks Jen.

I recently took a trip to California with my kids to visit their dad's side of the family. I had my brother in law's help on the way there but on the way back it was me...and two kids. I actually had multiple people ask me in the airport, "you're flying with 2 kids by yourself? You must be brave..." and I usually finished their sentences for them by adding "...or stupid!"

I thought that getting through security would be my biggest hurdle. But really, it wasn't that bad. I was blessed with patient and helpful people behind me and (what appeared to be) airport employees filled with sympathy.

Our flight was delayed so we waited 2 hours after we got through security. Luckily my 2 year old loves airplanes and my 10 month old happened to be sleepy so the 2 hours flew by.

When we got on the plane i had a strategy. I would sit my the window with the baby on my lap and my toddler would sit in the middle. Then NO ONE would sit next to us. But when the flight attendant announced that it was a full flight my hopes were crushed. A very nice man sat down next to my son and I immediately thanked him for being so brave as to sit in our row.

The first 30 minutes were a breeze but then the kids started getting antsy. So I broke out my "go to", my "lifesaver", my DVD player and put in a movie. But regardless of attempts to charge it, the screen flashed "LOW BATTERY". So we watched the first 5 minutes of Monsters Inc. before it completely died.

After that it got a little rocky. The baby was still tired and wouldn't go to sleep. My son wanted to do everything but sit down and keep his seat belt on. So I did what any mother would do...I broke out the bribe food. I packed M&M's in case something like this were to occur. I put them in his snack catcher so he had to work to get them. And after 10 minutes of rocking my screaming baby she finally fell asleep in my arms.

By the time it was time to get off the plane the guy sitting in our row said that my kids were very well behaved and complimented my mothering skills!

Turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...but I won't be doing it again anytime soon :)

I commend those of you who are outnumbered :)

Keep it up!

We all have those days. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed and your bad morning quickly turn into your bad day. Kids have those days too. Take my 2 year old for example: He woke up in tears this morning at 7 am. Not sure why? For the next 5 hours he looked something like this:



Kids his age are exlporing their emotions. And some say they even get scared and feel out of control when they don't understand their emotions. I tried everything I had in me this morning to try to get him to stop (short of compromising boundries I have tried to put in place)but he just kept on.



Finally I had to step outside...and cry. I was the one who needed a time out. I think its crucial in these situations that parents do this. They can take the time to scream, cry or just say a quiet prayer to try to regain a little bit of sanity. Those of you who practice this I commend you. I think it speaks volumes about your parenting; knowing yourself well enough that you need a time out and actually taking it.

Don't feel weak or unsure of your ability to parent because you break down too. We are all human and need some sort of release from our stresses. I'm not sure how dads feel, but as moms we tend to try to take on too much and not let our fellow moms help when we need it that day. Don't feel ashamed. Because your fellow moms have those days too. Even if they don't want to admit it. Unless they are taking some very strong happy pills!

One last note. If you need help, ask! And for heavens sake if its offered, take it! And those of you who might not need the help that day, please offer it! We gotta stick together.