Cutest words my son is saying right now…

“YaSS!” (yes)

“WahK!” (walk)

“NUK!” (egg, candy, an indeterminate word to describe random objects, displeasure and general annoyance)

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I just read this post over at Parent Dish about a study which concluded that parents argue with their toddlers an average of 20 times per hour.  TWENTY. TIMES. PER. HOUR. The author of the post notes that the study purposely placed the parents/toddlers in situations which would inevitably cause conflict and so the results may be somewhat skewed.

However (knew there would be one of those, didn’t you?), let’s just talk about this for a minute. Because although twenty disagreements per hour seems high, I wouldn’t put five out of the realm of reality. In fact, I might say five disagreements per waking hour would be on the low side of average in my life which includes a just less than two year old with a four year old sister who is often antagonizing him/being antagonized by him.  Do the math people. Five conflicts per waking hour times approximately ten waking hours (not including the arguments about going down for a nap) equals FIFTY CONFLICTS PER DAY!

Can you imagine sharing an office with a co-worker that you have a conflict with five times per hour??? Where everything you do for them is met with outbursts of anger or physical violence? Someone who simply cannot agree to disagree and who believes that you alone are responsible for his or her happiness?  Someone who is frequently contrary and cranky, soils him/herself and constantly makes unreasonable and thoughtless demands on your time and unrealistic physical demands of your person?

Welcome to my life. And people, I’m telling you, my kids are generally pretty happy, and fairly agreeable.  Some people have much more challenging children than I.  And we’re only talking five conflicts PER CHILD per hour. I have two kids. Some people have a lot more than that! But even at a measly fifty (or one hundred if you count both my kids) conflicts per day, is it any wonder that I’m tired??? Should it surprise anyone that I occasionally snarl at my husband (or if my head starts spinning and lasers shoot out of my eyes)?  I think, when you look at the amount of negativity in my life, it really isn’t that shocking.

So if you’re a mommy (or daddy) out there who is home with the kids most days, you shouldn’t feel guilty if, at the end of most nights, you want to pour yourself a stiff drink (or five) with a healthy helping of tranquilizers on the side.