Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Hitting a Frustration Threshold

I have always been an impatient person. I hate waiting in lines, being on hold on the phone, waiting for someone to call me back or answer my text or email. I have an extremely low frustration tolerance.



This low frustration tolerance does not come in handy when having a child.

Today, my son was having a bad day. Was he hungry? Nope. Everything I offered him to eat he promptly rejected. Except for Cherrios. All he wanted to eat today was Cherrios. Try as I might, forcing vegetables in front of him he pushed them out of the way.

I tried to play with him, he didn't want that either. I thought maybe he was tired, so I attempted to put him down for a nap. But all he did was scream.

Finally, I was completely and utterly exasperated. So I yelled at him:

"What do you want?!!!"

His response: he began crying hysterically.

Needless to say, I wanted to bang my head against a brick wall. Or throw myself out a window. It is during these moments that I wish babies could talk. It would really make things a lot easier.

People tell you:
"Having a baby is hard."

What they don't tell you is that sometimes, as adorable as your kids are, they push you to your absolute limit and beyond.

I have never been tested so much in my entire life. And it has really grated on my nerves.



However, I have to tell you, that I feel like (in some bizarre way) being utterly frustrated by my child has made me a more patient person in other situations. I observe myself behaving more patiently in situations in which before I had a child I would have flipped out. So being pushed to a frustration threshold has somewhat of an upside.

6 comments:

  1. Lol. Your pics are amazing. If you took them just for this blog then I hope they helped chill you out, cuz that looks like fun! Anyway, I also feel the same way. Some times they annoy me so much I just want to scream!! (And I do!) Or beat them! (Which I don't! But I admitted it! Its true!!!) But I do try *so hard* to just relax and deal with them calmly, because they can definitely tell if you are upset. Sometimes that doesn't even work and its just so hard. I try to think how they won't be small for so long or to laugh at how dramatic they are being, but I don't want to scar them by laughing or yelling too much. :\ Basically girl, I hear you. It's been a nutty few weeks... But I do see some extra patience elsewhere. Sometimes. In other news, did you try the Adiri? I have to try again since she's just starting to warm up to the idea of a bottle.

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  2. Yes! I did take those exclusively for this blog.

    It was fun and gave me a outlet for my crazy brain.

    It is so hard to calm down when your kid is flipping out. Sometimes I feel like its impossible. Hence the wanting to jump out the window.

    I'm so glad you get it. :)

    The Adiri bottles have not arrived yet. And there is an example of a situation where I would have normally been really impatient - pre-child.

    But because I have been pushed to my limit so many times, I am patiently awaiting the bottles' arrival in my mailbox.

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  3. You blog was so cool in that one can experience the frustration you were feeling. The description and especially the pictures drove the point home. True they never tell you how hard it is. But I wonder if there is anyway to really express it. It probably has to be experienced.

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  4. I think you're right. You can't really appreciate what it is to be a mom, until you are a mom.

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