IS IT EASIER WITH CHILDREN OVER 3 YEARS OLD?

“When you hear all day that everyone is doing something better than you, and in the evening you’re the one they call to give them a goodnight kiss.”

Last weekend, I thought: Is life easier for parents with children over 3 years old? There will be as many answers as there are parents.

From my perspective, as a mother of two children (my daughter is 5, and my son is 8), I can honestly say that this stage of childhood is not as difficult for me as it was when my children were less than 3 years old.

Of course, there are other situations, ideas, and problems of older children, but they are easier to solve, and the whole parent vs child progress becomes easier.

What positive changes have occurred since infancy?

ILLNESSES TIME

I’ll start with this because when Patrick was 10 months old, with an ear and throat infection, we ended up in the hospital.

Every time I tried to breastfeed, he would vomit. We had to react quickly to prevent the baby from becoming dehydrated, so it was better to keep him in the hospital on a drip.

I remember it like it was today. My lovely lady nurse said: “A few more years and the child will tell you or show you what hurts, where it hurts, and then the parents’ reaction is faster and ends with giving Ibuprofen as a preventive measure, not a hospital visit. Now, as a parent, you have no way of determining what is wrong with your child; we, pediatricians, know how to help.”

She was right.

I will never forget the night I spent with a sick baby. I thought my newborn was going to suffocate because his nose was so stuffy. I tried to help him as much as I could by cleaning his nose, but it seemed to me that I was not able to help him. The feeling of my helplessness and the suffering of my son will never be erased from my memory.

With subsequent infections, when the children were over 2 years old, we never went to the hospital. We visited the doctor because, for example, a cough lasted 2 weeks. But we have drops for stomach ache; for a sore throat, we have a throat spray and Ibuprofen syrup for a fever. Communication with a child who is starting to get sick is very helpful and important.

For me it was a really big difference when Dora or Patrick blew their noses themselves and didn’t have to have their runny noses sucked out with special machines.
The process of giving my children medication has finally improved after 3 years. There is no running after my child with medication, adding medication to tea, spitting it out.
The most important thing is that crying and arguing with children about taking medication has completely disappeared.

THE END OF DIAPER TIME

There is a noticeable difference here.

I don’t get up at night because my kids’ diapers are wet. I don’t change the sheets after every night. And I don’t have to worry about my children sleeping in a wet bed and wet pajamas.

It didn’t matter how good the diaper was for us; Dora’s never lasted without a leak.

Patrick didn’t have these problems. Every time his diaper got dirty, he would cry loudly, asking for a dry diaper. Every 2-3 hours every night, we changed his diaper. There was no chance he would wake up in a wet bed. https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/new-sleeping-routine-by-patrick/

My daughter, when she fell asleep at 8 p.m., would get up at 6 a.m., and that was the problem with the wet bed. That’s why she had towels and waterproof pads under her, but it leaked anyway. We tried to change her diaper around 2-3 a.m. If she didn’t wake up, it was a wonderful night, but when we woke her up, it was a trauma until the morning. Dora loved to sleep, and any disturbance in her sleep changed her mood into that of a monster.

https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/new-sleeping-routine-by-dorothy/

When my children reached an age without diapers, before going to bed, they went to the toilet and slept until morning. During the day, in the initial phase of using the toilet, they wanted me to clean their bottoms. Now I don’t even know they are on the toilet, only when I sometimes find an unflushed surprise do I know that they were there.

FEEDING TIME

In this matter, sometimes I feel super relieved that Dora and Patrick know what they like to eat and what they don’t. From time to time, with their inventions, fussiness, and indecision, I would rather go back to the bottle stage.
The priority change for good is breakfast time with my children. In this case, it is the best change for a parent that I have experienced after years. Patrick prepares his own cereal with milk, oatmeal or scrambled eggs. For some time now, he has started making breakfast for his sister, special on the weekends. So, as you can imagine, when I open my eyes, I do not run to the kitchen, as when the children were small, but from bed I listen carefully to what will happen.

No more sentences like:

• the sausage or banana was cut incorrectly,
• the apple should not be peeled today,
• or the cucumber should be in slices and not strips, etc.

Excuses like:

• I won’t eat from this bowl today,
• this cup doesn’t suit me today,
• even the times of the bad spoon are over.

https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/the-specialist-in-childrens-morning-dramas-wanted-immediately/

The dramas with food from infancy are over.

The only thing that has happened in the matter of eating in older children and what we parents have to accept is that we often hear:

“Your dinner is worse than the one at school.”

“Grandma cooks this soup better.”

Most often I don’t get any compliments about my kids’ menu, or instead of a nice dinner, my Dora wants frozen fish fingers and Patrick wants frozen pizza.

THAT’S ALL

Really, at the age I have children now, I enjoy their independence and responsibility. They still look like cute little elves but with very well-designed minds.

https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/how-to-survive-the-day-with-two-small-children/

And there are days when, talking, singing, or arguing, you want to go back to when they were little, but only for a moment. Then I quickly remember the times when Patrick was wrapped around my leg and Dora hung on my boobs while I cooked dinner with my third and fourth hand. https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/any-news-from-life-with-two-children/