Sleeping on the stairs at 4am and my Unreasonable Child!

My 1 year old is totally unreasonable!

Yeah, I get it, my 1 year old, is totally unreasonable.

Maybe her being a 1 year old is a major part of why. I cannot reason with her on a good day, but I definitely cannot reason with her when she makes totally unconscionable decisions like “It’s 4am, I am awake, and I might as well get up for the day!” And of course, if she gets up, Daddy gets up!

In my defense, I think I had a reasonable case to argue against her unilateral decision. For starters:

• Daddy has a job to go to and has a really busy day today
• It’s 4am
• Daddy had a day out of the office yesterday and therefore has loads of emails that will require his attention
• It’s 4am
• Daddy didn’t go to bed as early as princess daughter and therefore has not had as much sleep.
• It’s 4am!

As it was, my protests were loud and vivacious but entirely unheeded by this daughter of mine and downstairs we went.

Here lies a potential problem. My wife, and mother of awake child, had had much less sleep than me recently and is responsible for the 1 year old all day every day. Therefore it is imperative, not only for my wife’s sanity but also for the future of my marital bliss that dutiful daughter doesn’t wake the mummy bear from her slumber. Easy right?

Here lies another potential problem. Daddy is much less fun than mummy and now that destructive daughter is awake and starting her day, she realises it would be much more fun if she could make mummy aware that the family was up and at it.

Have you ever tried to stop a 1 year old climbing the stairs without a stair gate? (Taking the stair gate down seemed a great idea at the time! Honest!) She was one persistent little madam.

Step 1: Climb the stairs
Step 2: Daddy brings you down
Step 3: Climb the stairs
Step 4: Daddy brings you down
Step 5: Climb the stiars….. etc

It never seems to get old! I don’t mind her being awake and down stairs (well, I do, but I’ve lost the battle by now and therefore I am frankly hoping that I can win the next battle having cut my losses and run on the first one) but I would like her to sit and amuse herself while I sleep on the sofa!

My eventual victory was hard fought and uncomfortable. Muggins here, laid on the stairs and fell asleep there, using my own sleeping body as a barricade to block determined daughter (I will run out of D’s eventually) from her destructive goal of awakening her mother. I won, and she soon decided she would sleep (on the sofa) until my alarm went off and I headed to work (sore back and all!)

At her age, I cannot reason with her. We can’t have a conversation and debate the merits of her idea against mine. Sometimes, all I can do, is physically and uncomfortably put my body on the line (literally) to achieve my goal of a happy wife.

But it is challenging, and I can only imagine it seems more challenging the more tired you are, to deal with situations with a toddler without getting frustrated, or losing your temper and scaring them. They simply don’t understand and as we’ve discussed before, their world is so much smaller than ours. They don’t have work, manager’s and society demands. And they just don’t care. I heard a phrase once

“Adults devise a plan and follow it, children do what feels good.”

In this case I think my little child didn’t just do what she wanted, but she did something that definitely didn’t make me feel good!

Anyone got a more exhausting story than mine? Come on, make yourself feel miserable, it would make me feel much better!