Hello everyone,
I am posting this as my 2 boys jump on the couch with their crackers all over it and my daughter is trying to climb on my lap, crying. to make matter more complicated i have a surprise baby 13 month old baby boy in the swing watching his crazy sibblings. i have no idea what to do. my kids are out of control. they climb out of their cribs, which are badly deformed by now from their naughtiness, plus my daughter can open doors despite the knob covers to prevent them. we can afford daycare for only 2 times a week from 11-5:30 which is a great help but still leaves me with them 3 days all by myself. they fight like animals with each other, the boys especially gang up on their sister and hit her with toys on her head. please tell me if there is something i can do to regain some sanity and get things down in the house because i really cant do anything. i have to go now because one of them switched off the cable box and the others are screeching at me to come and put it back on. is there anything i can do????!!!!

Wait it out??? 2 and 3 are hard years. The first thing I would do is put them in toddler beds. If they were a couple of months younger I would have recommended crib tents but I'm not sure how many months of use you would get out of them. It isn't safe to keep them in cribs once they can climb out. You need toddler beds or crib tents.

If you want them to not be able to open doors, you are going to have to try another solution. Some people switch the doorknobs so the lock is on the outside. Others put a hook and eye latch high on the door. There are other solutions if you want to do an advanced search on here.

As for getting anything done, good luck! Two was the year I had once a month cleaning people because it was impossible to do any kind of intense cleaning with toddlers. You also might need to do some additional babyproofing, like a plastic shield over the cable box so they can't push buttons.

Do you do timeouts? We did at 2. Hitting someone with toys would have earned a time out.

At least you have a break 2 days a week. 2.5 was the age that I looked at my husband and told him we had to find a preschool for them at 3 for my own sanity!

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

Hi Lori,
Thanks for responding. I do give them time outs but it gets really tedious sometimes because i sometimes end up doing ten time outs between 3 kids in half an hour and I feel like giving myself a time out by the end. lol
I know we need to put them in beds now. It's on our list of things to do, but God knows when hubby will get to it. he is usually busy at work nowadays. But i definitely feel grateful for the daycare 2 x per week. i think i defintiely need to get some additional baby proofing around the house to limit the insanity.

Yes, you do end up with them in time out a lot in the beginning....and it is hard for a while, but without that rigid consistency you have chaos. Actually, when all three are in time out it is very quiet for a while..

Susan

Parent to GGG born 31 weeks 4 days 4/26/07




http://www.thedivinemercy.org/message

  

Read "Positive Discipline for Preschoolers", and "Life With Toddlers: 3 simple strategies to ease the struggle and raise happy, healthy toddlers ". It really helps to understand where their behavior is coming from. I have found some of these books really helpful for maintaining control and understanding how VERY important positive discipline during these years are.

Karla

6/29/08
Amelia - 2 lbs. 12 oz
Marcus - 4 lbs. 11 oz
Jocelyn - 3 lbs. 15 oz.

born at 32 weeks 6 days
http://mybabydrama.com/

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers is GREAT!
I have always been onto this line of thinking as I was yelled at, humiliated verbally, etc as a child. Sad to say my husband and his family are archaic in their thinking and use these tactics on my 3 year old GGG's. Due to economic reasons we are currently living with them and it breaks my heart to hear them sometimes - like - if you don't stop crying I'm going to spank you - and then wonder why the girls are hitting each other later - and then to say - stop hitting or I'll spank you - how can people be so stupid?
Anyway, thanks for posting.
Lana

My GBG are 2y4m and I feel your pain. This is certainly a short-term suggestion, but when I want to get some stuff done at home I swap their toys so they get a bin of stuff they haven't seen in a few weeks. It's like getting brand new toys and keeps them busy for maybe an hour or two. There are still squabbles and yelling, but it keeps them out from underfoot if I'm trying to do things in the kitchen, for example.

Thanks to the poster who suggested the books! I've made a note of them, too. One of my girls could give two shakes about timeouts.

Mom to GBG born in July 2009 at 30w6d: 3#10oz, 3#12oz, 3#2oz

Sorry things are rough right now. We have essentially four year old BBG triplets and a singleton boy who is turns two on Saturday.

As a general rule we just let our kids eat in the kitchen which helps some.

I would recommend crib tents for your sanity to keep them contained and sleeping well for you until they are three years old plus a few months before doing the toddler beds. (If you are interested in more detail of why we love crib tents, I do have a blog post on it, they are for the sanity of parents)

Even then, since you have rough and tumble boys like me I would recommend starting phase one transition to big kid beds with the only thing in their room being mattresses on the floor and lovies and books. Then once they prove that they will stay in their beds, put mattresses on beds.. all this to avoid as much as possible heads being cracked open by rough housing on beds. Also reversing the locks will help.

We are thinking of getting a small jump house for our kids to take turns in getting energy out... another mom of multiples shared this idea with me and I think it sounds like a good idea.

For us taking away one of their favorite things, a time out from their favorite thing seems to work better than a time out.. we do both though. Whatever works right:) Also we bribe them to behave for a reward, something they love.

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

Mom to BBG Triplets and Singleton boy. Our triplets are almost four and our baby is almost two.

I think most if not all of us can feel your pain. I remember asking another triplet mom when it would just get better and she said 5. Mine turned 5 in October and I must say, she was right. At four, I felt relief. I think it gets better every day.

I hope you at least get nap time alone without everyone. As stated before, I think you need to get the bed/crib thing under control. I am not sure I recommend moving to toddler beds yet. Mine slept a lot better in their cribs versus toddler beds/ twin beds. I know you might have to spend money, but it would be worth it. Sometimes you can find good used ones. Maybe start with one child to try it out. Maybe you could even borrow one to see if that would work.

Mine always were good if I made it more like daycare at home. I know this is unrealistic most of the time because you have more to do at home than a daycare does.

So, I recommend scheduling what the day will look like. Come up with activities remembering that their attention span is about 5 or less minutes long.

I would try the reverse door knob thing like mentioned before. Discipline was tough tough tough at that age. I remember thinking that nothing I did got through to them. Looking back, I'm not sure what I did got through to them. I think it just takes TIME for them to grow out of some behaviors. At my house, it was like WWF smackdown at times. I think I could of sold tickets. I'm a spanker, but I did do time out also. Half the time, I think they forget what they do by the time you deal with them about it (at that age).

Hang in there. We survived it and you can too. I'll say a prayer for you. Oh, just remembered, car rides. If all else fails, drive around.

I didn't read all the replies so if this is a repeat suggestion I apologize.

I don't know what you pay for your day care for those two days but maybe you could use it to pay for a mothers helper 4 or 5 days a week instead?

I would have been much happier with someone coming into the house 4 or 5 days a week than being able to drop my kids off somewhere 2 days a week.

The extra pair of hands would ease your stress and maybe make it possible for you to establish a daily routine that, once the kids got used to it, you would be able to handle better when you are on your own.

Plus maybe with the extra help you could get some one on one time with each child and that might help some of acting out they are doing.

And having the extra person would make it possible to divide and conquer--1 or 2 go with you to the store and the others stay home with the helper.

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Secure-Surround-Play/dp/B000G1YW98

We have these plat gates around everything important (TV, etc) and they help immensely.

I've found that taking the sibling that was hit and giving her special attention and love for a few minutes in front of the other two is better "punishment" than anything.

Also, make sure they are getting a lot of exercise. When mine are exercise-deprived, they can be horrid. A half-hour of running around outside daily helps them behave.

You are in a tough stag We also had a baby after our triplets and it seemed like a full time job to keep him safe from his older triplet siblings. You have probably tried this but it does seem to help if you follow through is to offer rewards for good behavior and take away their favorite things for a while when they are not behaving nicely and really praising them when they are being nice to each other. Also can they play outside more.. just really bundle up to get some energy out. Or we even gave our kids a bounce castle to have indoors this winter for our kids to get some energy out and to help them with their development.

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

Mom to BBG 4 year old Triplets and 2 year old Singleton boy.

I am so relieved to read all your posts!!! I also have 2.5 yr old bbg's and most days I feel like I live in chaos land! I recently discovered google calendar and am try to fill in every minute to provide some structure to our lives. I'm not sure it'll help, but it makes me feel a bit more organized and under control. It's good to hear that things eventually get easier...around 4 or 5 seems to be the general consensus. It's not too far off. I hope we all can maintain our sanity until then! Keep on keepin' on! After hearing a story of a recent nap time poo exhibition at our house, my brother told me "Well, it can't get any worse!" I hope not - it can only get better from here right?

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