Last night I got into a bit of an argument with my mom. Well, maybe less of an argument, but more she just really hurt my feelings.

I have been struggling a bit on this trip with Ian. He has been such a pistol and so full of energy. He really doesn’t listen very well. He is always climbing on something, throwing things, and jumping off things. I know that it is just typical behavior for an active 2 year old boy. He acts like this at home too, but here it has been harder to deal with.

I think the biggest problem is that he gets overtired. I haven’t been able to get him to nap regularly, and he really needs a nap. When he doesn’t get one, he gets the opposite of sleepy. He turns into a total maniac, and then he fights sleep even more. It is a vicious cycle.

I know that my parents don’t really agree with my parenting style. They think I should spank my kids. But, at the same time they are always complimenting me on how great my kids are….I don’t get it sometimes. My dad made a comment last week that he thinks that there are no consequences when my kids misbehave. This is totally NOT true. There are not spankings as consequences, but they still have consequences.

Last night, mom and I were watching TV. Supernanny came on and we turned it on in the middle. They were showing the video of how the family had done after supernanny left. They kept showing the dad giving time outs, without explaining why the child was getting a time out. Supernanny said “Those timeouts are not doing anything!” and mom looked at me and said “See…I told you time outs don’t work. ” She said it in a totally judgemental way, acting like she has someone on her side againts time outs and for spanking. The part she missed was that Supernanny was saying a critical part of time outs is explaining what the child was doing wrong and why–I always do that.

I went to bed really upset. I just think it was a terrible time for me to hear criticism of my parenting skills. I have been stressed about Ian, and it is really hard without Scott here to help out too. Then this morning, she asked me if I was still grumpy! Ugh. I think she owes me an apology, and she was making a joke out of the whole thing.

I am just really ready for this trip to be over. I have had a great time, but it has been long enough.