Attitudes

I have a 11 year old son (tween) on July 5 will turn 12 years old. Now I am not bragging... so please don't think I am. But you have to know the past to understand the present. He did everything early. He came into life early, walk and talked early, potty broke early. He even hit the hormone part of his life early. So early that the family doctor sent him to a specialist about it. We see kids his age with cell phones, ipods, hanging out in the neighborhood at 10 pm, "little girls" blossoming early and being aggressive towards the boys. It is painful for a parent to watch the transition. He will not even go to the pool alone due to some of the girls down there will not leave him alone. A boy his age even download adult pictures off the net! The children are growing up a lot faster than they ever did when I was that age. I have talked to other parents and some tell me that handing their kid a cell phone is a good thing, they can keep track of them better. My mother keep track of me without a cell phone in my pocket. I was made to check in at certain times. The kids are dressing more like adults, listing to music about love and other adult topics. A little girl (11 yrs old) in the next building even was talking about her 13 year old "making love"... WOW!!! Does anyone have a tween?? How do you deal with everything??? Sometimes he is happy and sometimes he appears to be down in the dumps.

Okay I know girls can be moody but this is crazy! One minute she is as sweet as can be and the the next her lips are fapping and words are flying out and I don't know how to handle her. Sometimes it starts over something as simple as "have some cereal for breakfast" her reply.. HHHH I don't like that cereal and I had to eat it yesterday!!! Can't you buy anything GOOD????! MY LIFE SUCKSSSS!!! Then I get angry and tell her if her life sucked so bad she would have this or that and there are a lot of kids who don't even get to have cereal... well on and on. I'm sure you get the picture. She is only 11, what is in store for me when she hits puberty? Is this normal, Her twin sister dosn't act that way. I know every kid is different but her attitude is so volitle sometimes I am really worried something else might be going on. My husband says its just a phase but I'm not to sure. Any suggestions? Okay here is another episode that JUST happened. Kenz called a friend up to come over, friends mom said not today, Kenz starts yelling at ME like it is my fault her friend has plans. What's up! Help

I consider myself a good mom. But I cant help but feel that I am failing somehow. As some of you know I have three children. Brianna will be 6 in two months, Ronny is 3 1/2, and Kinsey will be 2 this month. I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out why they are acting the way they are. I understand kids will be kids, and I think mine are good kids the majority of the time, but they are starting to show blatant disobedience, and destructive behaviors . I tell them to do something and they look right at me, and as soon as I walk away, they do it again. On Wednesday, they broke the door to my oldest room clean off the hinges. How do children break a door? They have broken one of our computers,broke all headphones, ripped a hole on the window screen,refused to pick up toy room, broke both the vhs player and the dvd player, and now today the oldest popped the air mattress we had blown up in a spare bedroom as an extra bed. I asked why she did it and she said it was just to see if a pencil was sharp enough to pop it. Why? She is a very intelligent girl and knows better. Its not like i don't watch my kids either, they are just being really fast. Most of these incidents have happened while I am making dinner, in the bathroom , or at the gym.... (husband watches them). I am at my wits end.. I know kids will be kids, but at the same time I think my oldest needs to be punished. What should I do? What is a good punishment? I have taken away movies ( kids are not big tv watchers during day) and have grounded her from toys in the past (to try to teach value of things) for a few days, but that has not seemed to teach her anything if she continues to show destructive behavior. ANY THOUGHTS??? what should I do? HELP!

I am having a real hard time getting over this so I want to know what you all think. Long story but I will make it short. My mother in law's birthday was not to long ago, we got her some flowers and a card. She called me about a week later and said she thought she had lost that money. I said what money she said well did you put money in my birthday card? I told her no she said ok. I thought that was rude, like saying her gift wasnt enough, well about 3 weeks later she told my husband that she was upset about her b day gift. (she thinks we have a money tree in back and we can get her anything) I didnt talk to her since then for about a week, she came to babysit the kids for about 2 hours and that day things were fine. My husband goes to her house Saturday before mothers day and she says to him what do you want when he walks in. She called here last friday and I was not able to get to the phone so I told my husband that she called, he called her back but no answer. She calls here Saturday (last Sat. b 4 moms day) and says what did Brian want? I said well he was calling you back, she says I didnt mean to call you I dialed the wrong number, I will let you go and hangs up !!!!! Well of course we had to go there on mothers day even though b/c of this I didnt want to, she said how happy she was that we came over. She gets upset that my husband doesnt come over on his days off work. Hello we have 2 kids and a house to take care of. She has never been married and Brian is her only child. She does babysit for us whenever we want but why do I have to take her being so rude to me??? Sorry this is so long .... what do you think

My daughter Kaitlin (2) has always been behind. She didn't walk till she was 18 months. She is just now starting to talk. I just thought it was because shes stubborn and she had a hard first year. She had RSV at 2weeks and 8 months. She almost drowned at 8 months but the doctor said she is ok nothing was wrong. I work with her to say words. She loves book and she recognizes things its just that she doesn't communicate very well. She understands everything I say, but I am getting worried. Any advice.

Are there any 40ish moms out there? I feel like I am the oldest one on this site. I would love to hear from some other 70's kids out there.

I have a very determined, strong willed, and stuborn 2 year old daughter. All 3 of the traits I just described I think can all be considered good traits but if she's having a bad day they can be an awful combination. She has recently started taking her anger and frustrations out by kicking, smacking, pulling hair, and pushing. At home and daycare (more so at home). I have tried scolding her and putting her in time out. She used to go sit on the couch the second I told her to but it's now gotten to the point that I have to strap her into the highchair and leave the room. She will cool down for a few then 10 minutes later she's at it again. I got a lot of slack from friends and family when it came to diciplining Madison because I decided that spanking just didn't make sense to me and I wasn't going to do it. The other day she was having one of her meltdowns and slapped me in the face. I spanked her not only did I feel like the worse person ever she actually laughed at me!! So I am still doing the time outs and scold her everytime she is physical but it doesn't seem to have any effect. She's already had a few incidences at daycare and I really want to nip this problem in the bud before she hurts someone or gets kicked out of daycare. Has anyone else experianced violent behaviors like this? I just don't know where she gets it me and her dad are not violent people and we don't let her watch grown up tv. I guess I just feel at my wits end with this.

Did anyone ever say "When I have children, I'll never let them...(fill in the blank)" or "My children will know better" when watching someone else's child or interactions with their child? So much of what happens depends on the child, the environment and your response. BUT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTROL! Things that I thought pre-parent were- My child will just learn how to sit when we eat because I'll teach them. My child will try whining but I'll nip that in the bud with appropriate consequences. My child will be well behaved in church because they will have lots of practice. Reality==== Sitting for any length of time unless it is his idea is rare and even more rare at a meal time. When my son is tired or doesn't get his way, he whines. and It only take two seconds for my very fast son to run to the front of the church, during the service, to stand with his Grampy, five more seconds for him to run the other way when I go to get him and then three seconds for his (much faster) cousin to grab a hold of him and bring him back to the pew.
Do you remember your pre-parent statements? Do you every feel that the non-parent people are watching you and making comments to themselves or their other non-parent friends?

Well, this morning I started off my day by yelling from one room to the next "No, you may not put jellybeans in your underwear!" So, now that the jellybeans are out of the underwear and in the garbage can (although they were really still wanting to eat them) my question to you is . . . what kind of day does this mean I will have? Do you ever stop and listen to the things you say to your children and think, "I never in my wildest imagination EVER dreamed that those words would come out of my mouth!"

My boys are wonderful and fun and challenging and silly and they always keep me on my toes . . . especially when they are putting jellybeans in their underwear! So, here's to all you moms out there who are constantly saying things you never dreamed you'd say! Laugh a little more and enjoy your day because each day is a gift . . . a gift from God . . . and we can make it into whatever we want it to be! And what funny things have your heard yourself (or your children) say lately?

I have two beautiful daughter one who is going to be 4 and one that is going to be 2. My four year old is giving a run for our money. She is do defiant and I am not sure what else we can do to control her. For 2 years she was the only child, grandchild on both sides of my husbands and I family. We let her be a free spirit. We thought it was cute that at such a young age that she could make up her own mind on things. Now we regret this. She has to have everything her way. She throw huge tantrums anywhere we go. Just last we we went to breakfast and she lost it because it was time to leave. We had to carry her to the car kicking and screaming. It was so embarrassing. She is starting to talk back saying the meanest things. She told us that she didn't want to live with us anymore and she didn't like us. This all started around the time that her imaginary frog that lives in her throat came around. Yeah she has a frog in her throat that makes her be like this. We started to take things away and really buckling down on what she is able to do. Like going to the store with me. I am at my wit end. She pushed her sister off the bed and "the frog did it". I don't know how to handle this. She is not the same little girl that we were so use to. This week she was so bad at the sitters that our sitter told us that she can't watch her anymore because of how bad that she talk to her. She didn't curse or anything but her being so sassy and hateful to the sitter with the other kids around has just didn't cut it. And honestly I really understand where the sitter is coming form. But the funny thing is that see doesn't act like this at preschool. We have tried to talk to her and she listens but 10 minutes later she is doing the same thing. She apologizes but I don't think she gets what it really means. So when she says it it means nothing. I have asked her if something was bothering her but nothing she blames it on the frog. I am scared that she will never get over this and my 2 year old will start to ask like this. We don't argue in front of our kids and I don't know where she is learning this from. I am asking for Any advise on this before it get worse.