Three weeks into the school holidays and I've started to question my own sanity, method and morals. Squiggle has turned into a nightmare child, he wakes up bright and breezy and all cute and loving but then as the day goes on he turns into a bad tempered, angry, rude stroppy little stress head, and I just don't know what to do anymore.
I appreciate that no child likes shopping, but when the child asks to go to a store to buy a toy and then kicks off in the store saying they don't like shopping, what are you supposed to do?
Today Squiggle wanted to go and spend a voucher in Toys R Us, so I took him ( along with backup - my mum and grandma, it was a family day out ). Of course he wanted to buy everything he saw, and couldn't make his mind up between Pokemon, Turtles, Star Wars, Lego, Hot Wheels, Hexbugs, everything he looked at came with the usual cry of "I WANT IT, I WANT IT!". We managed to narrow the choices down to one or two that were within his budget and explained that the dearer ones would need to come from Father Christmas which Squiggle seemed to understand, but then all of a sudden he snapped, and started throwing himself on the floor and crying that he hated shopping and that we were all mean by taking him to the toy shop.
This continued as we headed to the car and came home..
Another day he had an outburst in another shop and was consequently frog marched from the store screaming and crying, whilst everyone looked on at us.
Now I must stress that I don't really care what strangers think of me when Squiggle is having an outburst, but it really bothers me when he does in front of people we know. He once had a major meltdown after school and laid himself on the pavement so that parents had to step over him to get home.
I've been told that it is my fault for being too soft on him in his earlier years ( he's only 6 btw ) and that I've let him get away with things for too long, it's true, I admit I've done that in the past, but when you're in constant agony and pain, sometimes it is easier to say yes just to keep the peace, but now I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. He gets sent to bed when naughty, has his toys confiscated and is grounded from playing out, but yet he never seems to learn. The only thing I haven't done is smack him, should I be considering doing this?
I don't know how strict his dad is when he goes to visit and do notice a difference when he comes back ( this is when he's at his worse ).
I guess I just want someone to either tell me it's all ok and this is a normal phase that he is going through or advise me on what to do.
Is there anyone out there that can help me?
