My child is driving me crazy. Help.

eleyna — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:18:18 -0800

My kid is *such* a whiner. Help. My 6-year-old boy has been driving me crazy lately. He seems to be set off by the smallest things, and he'll start crying if things don't happen exactly how he wants them, or expects them.

Background: I'm divorced. The kid's dad is a *real* jerk, but he has court-ordered visitation. Every time he comes back from his visits, we have to go through "detox," where he's forgotten his manners, we have to remind him how to say please and thank you, and he's just generally "touchy." This time, however, it has been especially bad, possibly owing to the fact that there's a new baby at his dad's house now (huge change), but I don't really know.

I love my son so much. I want him to be successful. But he cries when he doesn't get to play nintendo, or if he doesn't get to watch a TV show, and he gets angry at school when he has to do what he's told, and he has such a hard time shaking it off. Once he's gone, it's really, really hard to get him back. And I'm sick to death of this. I'm a fairly patient, non-overindulgent, perfectly-capable-of-saying-no parent, I just don't know what to do with all this excess anger and frustration he's feeling, and when he starts whining and crying about stuff that doesn't matter, I don't know what to do.

Anyone with any ideas, personal experiences, helpful books, references - anything? Help me feel like I can do this.

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My child is driving me crazy. Help.