What strategies do you use when your kids are getting on your very last nerve?

1. 61

   danajconnellyposted 11 years ago

   What strategies do you use when your kids are getting on your very last nerve?

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2. 91

   Jamie Brockposted 11 years ago

   I love my 4 year old son but sometimes he can be hyper and a handful.. usually the thing I do is try to distract him with something to get him busy and stop doing whatever it is that he is doing at the time that is stressing me out.    Sometimes I just have to take a deep breath and pray. If he keeps on doing something that I repeatedly tell him not to I put him in time out... it's actually just as beneficial for me as it is for him as it gives me a few minutes to regroup. Hope this helps:)

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3. 59

   bethany_pposted 11 years ago

   It depends on if I'm just having a bad day, or if the boys are being bad.
   If I'm having a bad day, I'll pop in a movie and do something that I enjoy doing while they are watching.  Read a book, bake something, knit/crochet, write, play piano.  I find that doing something for me in that little break (even if they never finish an entire movie) makes a world of difference.
   If they are being bad, or just having an off day, often I'll tell them to go read some books on their bed.  My boys thrive on alone time, and sometimes their acting up means that they're feeling overwhelmed and need some time alone.  After reading some books in their beds they're ready to keep playing or spending time with everyone else.

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4. 75

   Lady Wordsmithposted 11 years ago

   Easy.  I take them outside for fresh air and good old-fashioned wholesome exercise, to a field or a park where they can run and run and run, where I don't need to tell them to behave themselves, where I don't have to nag at them about their mess, where I can let them just be free to shout and throw themselves around and get their clothes dirty and kick a ball around and climb trees.  Kids have to have an outlet for all of that energy, and if you try to suppress it by expecting them to be calm and quiet all the time you're asking for trouble.  Once they've had a good run around, it's much easier to get them to do something constructive and creative and productive at home.  And they have more to talk about, because they've actually been outside and done something.  And also, having fresh air and exercise energises you as a parent, so you have more patience and can deal with difficult behaviour more effectively and calmly.
   
   I live in a town where there is a shortage of good places for the kids to run around, so we just have to make the best of the spaces we do have.  However, we are lucky that at the weekends, if we're prepared to drive, we can get out into the countryside and see forests and lakes and hills.  Living in a city must be very different, but I'm sure there are still ways to get children outside and moving.
   
   That's what I do, and it works for us beautifully.

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