Fatherhood

Being a single dad has its moments. And doing it the way I have has certainly been and still is a jumbled, tangled, treacherous journey. But more about that some other time. I am having troubles at the moment with my nearly six-year old son. He is rebelling and everyday seems to be a battle with him. He quite bluntly says, NO to me. Sometimes it takes three or four repeated instructions to get him to do what he is asked. Trouble is I deal all day with similar behaviours from a very challenging, attention seeking, student in my class and when I get home I don't want to have to deal with it again. But that is what's happening with my son. He is doing all this stuff just to push my buttons and at the end of the day I have little or no patience. I end up being really grumpy with him for the smallest thing. He has always displayed fairly eccentric, creative behaviour - like pretending he is a dinosaur and making deep growling noises while thumping about the living room. At the end of the day sometimes all I want is to crash in quiet for maybe a few minutes but he is always full on go, go, go. Maybe it's me over-reacting too. This morning he leapt into my bedroom and woke me knocking the charging mobile phone off the side table. I didn't grump. I said, ggod morning possum as I usually do. Later after breakfast he gave me a cuddle and I said to him, I love you but I don't like some of your behaviours lately. So the day started nicely. When I get home this evening I will make a big effort to not grump. Maybe I should borrow his dinosaur tail and thump about the house too.