Barrybran - [Insert Original Thread Title Here]

[Barrybran]

Rough night tonight. With the change in situation, I arranged for the kids to spend the night with family last night to offset the time lost with them when my wife is home on weekends. I missed the kids, looked forward to picking them up and spending time with them despite a hectic night ahead. Within fifteen minutes of having them all, I felt the need for a timeout and it went downhill from there.

My girls were hyperactive when I picked them up from daycare and their behaviour continued to deteriorate as the afternoon went on. My puppy was also misbehaving which made matters worse and to top it off, my son kept trying to get my attention which was icing on the cake. I feel bad for my son to be honest. He's a good kid. He's incredibly needy though and he's a little too young to understand when to back off so when the others are acting up he doesn't understand that I just need a little space for a while. I tried to take a time out for myself and my girls and puppy kept getting worse and I lost my cool completely.

I sent my youngest to bed at 6:30pm, my middle child to her room to play and my son to the other lounge with a movie of his choosing. Not an ideal solution but it helped. My girls settled down and started behaving, my son watched his movie quietly and that left my puppy who earned himself a timeout for his poor behaviour.

After some time, I felt more calm and it was still well before bedtime. D4 had come out to talk to me and she deserved a second chance for the night so we read some old birthday cards she brought out. As D3 was still awake and behaving, I invited her out and we all joined my son (and by then, our puppy) in the other room to watch his movie.

Tonight was soccer night and between my kids' behaviour and a storm we had, I decided not to go (my game started after I sent D3 to bed). I was really angry about this as it is the only time of the week dedicated to me and had to miss it. My babysitter unfortunately broke her foot this afternoon and I wasn't comfortable letting my kids play in the wet as well as not deserving to go out and play with the other kids.

The most disappointing thing is that it is only night three without my wife (with the kids here; night 4 overall). I don't want to lose my cool and I need to find better ways of dealing with things. I'm on my own in dealing with poor behaviour and I know I can't just tolerate it or my blood will boil. This were excellent before this afternoon and I'm proud of how I've handled things before today. Hopefully it's just a blip on the radar and tomorrow will be a better day.