Therapy for Parents

You hear whining from the other room.

It’s your preschooler, he’s awake.

You think, “Damn! I thought I had 30 more minutes to myself!”

Deep breaths. If he wakes up the baby, you really may explode!

The whining really pushes your buttons.

It takes everything you’ve got to put on a smile and the faux-calm demeanor that you’ve read is good for children. Then the guilt comes in with a long list of “shoulds” behind it.

“I should be spending more time with him.” “I should be able to handle both of my children.” “I should be doing more activities with him.” “I should be able to keep my cool.”

But really you feel like you can barely get through the day.

You know your preschooler’s world has been turned upside down with the arrival of the new baby.

But it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with his behavior, it’s nonstop.

And you feel like you can’t even enjoy your new baby.

You don’t have a clear sense of how you’re parenting.

One day you’re the good cop – patient, explaining things to your children.

The next day you’re bad cop – yelling and taking things away.

You’ve never talked about it, or even really thought about it.

You often feel like it depends more on the moods you’re each in rather than your child’s behavior.

But today you’re ready to take a step towards becoming more consistent with how you parent.

Where’s the manual?!?!

Parenting does not come with a manual with little tabs where we could just look each situation up. (That would be great!)

There is so much that can come up. We’re all just doing our best.

But where can you go when your well has run dry, so to speak?