The perils of parenting a two-year-old girl

My gorgeous ‘Little Miss Negative’ has just had her two and a bit year check. Turns out she’s just perfect! Obviously, I had my suspicions but as those who regularly dip into my blog will know – I do tend to listen to the opinions of others a little bit too much!

The Health Visitor I saw was lovely, although we did initially get off on the wrong foot. I had to chase for an appointment for my “Miss No” but the Health Visitor was adamant I’d just ignored the letter – turns out it had gone to the wrong address. More annoying was her insistence on calling me “Mum”.

It went like this – “OK then Mum, let’s make another appointment. Do you work Mum?”

Ahhhhh I’m not your Mum! Obviously, I didn’t say a word but seethed with rage inside. 

However, when I went to the clinic she was lovely. She was an older woman with three grown up children and was so relaxed that she immediately put my “I Don’t Like It” toddler at ease.
She even said “Yes” a couple of times. The toddler not me, admittedly it was out of her mouth before her brain engaged. As soon as the word was spoken I saw the confusion cross her face and the anger in her eyes. She must’ve thought for that spilt second. I can just imagine her little brain doing overtime thinking: "I said yes, I don’t do yes, my whole identity is based on no and the negative forms of speech.”

If she could swear I think she would’ve let out “SH*T, I’ve let my guard down”. Never fear though a more confident and louder “NO” soon followed it. You'll notice the image of her below makes her look sweet and adorable on her first ever horse riding lesson. Don't be fooled, she wears the hard hat for a reason. Not to protect her from an accident, but to cause untold damage to anybody that disagrees with her.

Nevertheless, the Health Visitor was very pleased with her speech and her development in general. I’m trying to potty train her at the minute and we have more bad days than good but again she said this was normal.

What about the temper tantrums? Again “normal”. Did I say she was perfect earlier? Turns out she’s more “normal”. Not to me though!

So, the tantrums, she says to ignore them as much as possible. Hard to do sometimes though. She pinched her older sister at the weekend – and her sister actually drew blood! Obviously I couldn’t ignore that. She sat in the corner for a minute and then came and said sorry. Sometimes, you just don’t know if you’re doing right for wrong!

At times like this I miss my Mum. I kid myself though with thoughts of being able to turn to her for a sympathetic ear. I know perfectly well what she’d say.

“You’re not happy unless you’ve got something to worry about. The girl’s fine”. That would be the advice on a good day. Alternatively it would be “You’re going to let this girl run rings around you. You need to start putting your foot down”. Hard to do when she’s only two-and-a-half though.

We’re trying out praise the good and ignore the bad. For my Mum who raised her kids in the 70s, this would’ve been an alien approach. We’ll see how it goes though although so far I’m not convinced. After being told, “Well done, you’re such a good girl”. She looked at me and said “No, Don’t like being a good girl”.

Sound familiar? I hope it does or I'm doomed. You have to laugh though, or you'd cry!! X