Unprofessional Parenting

My son woke up at 5 o’clock this morning. I heard him making some noise but figured he would go back to sleep. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my husband was getting up at 5:05AM to go to work. As soon as our son heard him get up it was the end of my “he’ll go back to sleep” fantasy.

He was crying when he got up because his diaper leaked. Then he cried when we changed his clothes. Then he cried because my husband left for work. He also cried because I let the dogs out. Then he cried for reasons I could never figure out.

I took away a toy that he was using to hit the dog on the head and he reached total meltdown mode. I calmly (somehow I was calm - I think I was just too tired to fight it out at that point) put him back in his bed and asked him to “rest” for a few minutes. I don’t think he could hear me over the screaming but it was worth a shot. After a while he calmed down and came back out. We had our talk about hitting the dogs with things (the talk I’m sure we’ll have at least seventy more times before he gets it) and went back to our day.

We went outside to take a walk and he cried because he wanted to stay inside. He cried when we came in because he wanted to stay outside. He cried when I took the dogs out because they licked him. He cried when I put them away . . .

And so it goes until naptime.