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Jill's avatar

Brings back memories of sitting on the floor of a bedroom shared by 4 girls and relishing their forgiveness after I had erupted at them, once again. The sweet times far outweigh the painful times, and all parents need the grace to embrace this themselves.

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Laura's avatar

It's such a dance. I've found that my son responds better to "the environment" asking the question when it comes to guiding him to activities (but like all "advice," this doesn't even work for me all the time). Like, he'll come try to come play with a new game or long-buried toy if it's just *ambiently available* and I'm using it, but as soon as I verbally ask him if he wants it, he shies away and wants to say no. Sigh.

I think Sarah Radz recently tweeted about how much of parenting is creatively engendering cooperation and how it's not a matter of children being automatically compliant for most of us.

You're doing a great job, and playing on hard mode when your sleep is interrupted. The mistakes are features, not bugs, when there's no path to a fully-rested Mom, so try to take that responsibility off yourself and put it on the situation, whenever you can. Like, do make progress on things that matter to you when progress is possible, but when you're this sleep-deprived, some of the journey must be simply survived. <3

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