Well...That Didn't Change.

I always wondered when I was not a parent how I would respond to my own kid being whiny. I hated it when the kids were not mine. You could take the sweetest, most wonderful, most lovely child and the second they started whining, I checked out. All done. HATED IT. Absolutely despised it.

In fact, on rare occasions, it made me irrationally angry.

So I always wondered if it would be different when it was my own sweet, wonderful, lovely kid being whiny.

Turns out, it isn't any different at all. I still hate it. With every fiber of my being.

The only thing that has saved me from diving head first into the first oncoming bus is knowing that right now, whining is the only way she has of expressing her displeasure. If she simply babbles, I won't get that she needs something...in fact, would think the babbling is cute. Whining lets me know, quickly, that she is hungry, unhappy, tired, needing a new diaper...whatever.

Knowing that doesn't make me like the whining any more, or despise it any less...but it does provide some level of understanding. I try to coax her into responding differently. For instance, when she wants to be picked up, she'll tug at my legs and whine. I alway finish what I'm doing (as much as I may understand her communicating, I'm absolutely NOT going to immediately respond to bad behavior...and whining is bad.) and then I look down at her and ask her if she wants to come up. I'll hold my hands out like she does and say "Up? Do you want to come up?"

Sometimes she's mimicks me. Sometimes she ignores me and cries harder. The clock is often an indicator as to which it'll be.

In any event, she gets a free pass for right now. As soon as she has words and can use them, my response to whining is going to, "Oh, I'm sorry, Bailey. I can't understand when you don't use your words."

And that's it. Because MAN...I HATE the whining. HATE IT!