Thank you so much, Chay, LAF and George C! It feels so great to know that I'm not alone in having those feelings.
LAF, I used to wonder why parenting DS6 was so hard. From when he was 2 until about 5, I kept saying "It shouldn't be this hard!". This was usually before I would burst into tears from the exhaustion. He's getting better, but it's still tough.
Optometrists, dentists, hair cuts, tags on clothes, food, etc are all particularly fun with my kids and generally involve other adult's glares and occasionally comments and 'helpful' advice. In those moments I've been known to fantasize about the potential upsides to all of this - future greatness (degrees, awards, careers, etc) as I take a deep breath and try to get through. Outside of that I'm pretty laid back and about as non-tiger as you can get but in those moments I have big dreams for them. Then the crisis passes and I go back to normal. So yeah, you're not alone.
Exactly! Mostly, all I want for him is to be happy and well-balanced, and to achieve his own version of success. But when we're going through a rough time (like the day he cried and cried and cried and cried because the weed he had transplanted from the school yard to our front garden didn't survive), I want to know that there are some serious upsides to this.
I've even caught myself paying close attention to him to see if he'll make some quirky comment, so I can use it to cheer myself up. Like this morning, when I explained that Santa doesn't bring expensive gifts like iPads (he "sort of" still believes in Santa), he responded with "That's ok. I'll ask Santa for gold instead. That way, he can just go underground and mine it and it won't cost him anything."
