Whining, Crying, Unhappiness

[azurelunatic]

Nephew's been pitching a lot of fits. Today he got far too frustrated over homework. To make sure that there were no fits over homework, not even little ones, we sent him to take a nap, and sure enough, there was a fit over the nap. Not a huge one, just a bunch of crying. There was a tantrum at school... I think I mentioned this earlier today. Poor kiddo... not sure what to do.

There have been many, many battles over bedtime. His latest trick is to say he's not thirsty when asked before bed, but five minutes later, in bed, suddenly he needs a drink. After this became a pattern, Votania decided to stop playing along with it. Not only does he know how to get his own drink of water, it's just stalling tactics. So, he's now asked if he needs a drink before bedtime, and requests thereafter are treated as bedtime-delaying ploys, which they are.

Removed cat from room. It's 11:40 now, and bedtime was nine, or earlier. Walked in, laid down quietly on lower bunk, didn't say a word to him or acknowledge him in any way when he was being noisy and talking, complaining about how Shamash's breath "is stink", and when Shamash finally came down out of the bed, grabbed the cat, petted the cat, whispered to the cat. When Nephew was quiet for a sufficient length of time, I petted him, said, "You're being very nice and quiet. Goodnight. I love you," and went to leave the room. When he said something to me, again on the water theme, I said, "That was *not* nice and quiet," and left, taking the cat with me.

Comments

[tiel.livejournal.com]

Jason's son, who I believe is about the same age, used to do that. We would just leave a glass of water next to the bed, to make that a non-excuse.

Do you think that there are bigger issues then just not wanting to cooperate? Perhaps this is an attention thing, what with new people in the house and changes that Mom might be making?

[azurelunatic]

It's a something thing, that's for sure. I'll have to check with her to see if it has any correlation to Marx moving in.

[azurelunatic]

We used to have a glass for him in the bathroom. I really don't think it's really water that's the issue... but it's going to be interesting finding out what...

[tiel.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm in any danger of winning the mother-of-the-year award, but I would have to think that maybe it does. Kids can be sensitive to things like that, just because they don't understand the implications, like us "grown-ups" (ha!) do.

In my experience, if the right person sits down to talk to someone that age, and asks them clearly what's wrong, they'll tell you. Generally, they know -why- they're upset, they just don't know the rights things to -do- about it.

[azurelunatic]

It's finding the right time to, though, that's been the issue for me. Either he's been cranky and not really in the mood to be coherent, or doing something else, or I've been not there.

I feel so much like my father, sometimes.