Grumpy in the morning

libbyann

In the past month or so, Will has started being super grumpy in the morning. I totally get that he may not be a morning person, and that's just fine. But his behavior is not okay with me - he'll try to hit/kick if I change his diaper, yell at me, tell DH and me "no" constantly, etc. I've been thinking it's related to his blood sugar since he rarely eats anything we give him for dinner, so I try to get him in the high chair ASAP to eat breakfast...but for the past week he has started to meltdown and doesn't want anything I offer. Today he threw a huge tantrum in the high chair [because he wanted to eat pizza instead of eggs & cereal, which he had just asked for 5 minutes before] so I got him down, put him on the ground and walked away. After about 10 minutes of screaming and throwing a fit, he got up, went to the pantry and asked for a snack, so I gave him his [now cold & soggy] breakfast and he ate it just fine.

After breakfast, he's usually fine and in a great mood. Any ideas of how to get him to cut this behavior before breakfast? I don't care if he's hungry/tired/whatever - I still expect him to have some manners and be cooperative, which IMO is not too much to ask of a 2 year old. It sucks to start every single day out with a fight and I've run out of ideas!

FireChiefsBride

Can you give him juice right when he wakes up?

libbyann

FireChiefsBride:

Can you give him juice right when he wakes up?

We don't do juice in the morning, but I could try with milk. Not sure if he'd drink it or not, but it's totally worth a shot! Thanks!

ali-1411

Layna is usually pretty grumpy when she wakes up.  I don't even try to talk to her or anything.  I lift her out of the crib and she stumbles out of her room and down the hallway.  She never wants to eat right away so she ends up laying on the couch and watching Bubble Guppies or something.  After about 20 minutes or so, she hops up and she's perfectly happy. 

What if you just ignore him?  Give him some time to wake up properly before expecting him to be civil.  

libbyann

ali-1411:

Layna is usually pretty grumpy when she wakes up.  I don't even try to talk to her or anything.  I lift her out of the crib and she stumbles out of her room and down the hallway.  She never wants to eat right away so she ends up laying on the couch and watching Bubble Guppies or something.  After about 20 minutes or so, she hops up and she's perfectly happy. 

What if you just ignore him?  Give him some time to wake up properly before expecting him to be civil.  

Thanks ali. I definitely can try leaving him alone. Do you change her diaper or anything? He's usually super wet, but I'm sure another 15 minutes wouldn't kill him. We did cut out TV in the morning back in February, which is probably around the time this all started b/c we got rid of our cable...so maybe it's all correlated! I guess I could put on a movie or something. Right now, if I just ignore him he follows me from room to room and throws himself down on the ground to throw his fit. And if I don't, he just says, "Mama, seriusy [seriously], stop!" to every single thing I say. Yeah, just what I want to hear at 7am  

ali-1411

No, I don't changer her diaper or anything.  I just let her be. 

LOL at his "mama stop!"  That's too funny.  I'd just keep ignoring him.  fwiw - Jakob is pretty much the same way.  We set his alarm early enough so he can lay on the couch for 5 minutes and wake up before expecting him to have breakfast and get ready for school.  And DH doesn't try to talk to me in the morning before I've had my coffee 

libbyann

Yeah, the "mama stop" was funny about the first 5 times. So not funny anymore!

 I have a totally hard time relating because I'm such a morning person. I'm totally okay with getting up at 4am to go workout. But keep me up past 9pm and I start to get a little grumpy I don't expect him to be perky or even happy in the morning...I just don't want to let him think it's okay to treat us like crap, KWIM? We'll try to let him chill out for awhile tomorrow and see if that helps!

mcurban

Jack went through a phase where he was a total grumpy gus in the morning. We figured out that the problem was WE were deciding when he got out of bed. We would hear him wake up and then go in there and be all, "Good morning!!"

Now, he makes the call as to when he's ready to get out of bed (granted, it's easier b/c he's in a regular bed, not a crib). We'll hear him in there reading, or playing w/ his stuffed cat- but we just leave him alone until he says, "OK, I'm awake!" Then, we go in to say good morning. 

amyliisa

If he's anything like my ds, this is likely just a phase. L went through it when he was a little older than your ds, after he was in his big boy bed (so like 27-28 months-ish). We would just leave him alone and told us that when he was ready to be happy, then we would help him get dressed/have breakfast, etc. We would just let him stay in his bed and we'd go back and lay in our bed until he came into our room happy and ready to start his day. I want to say it lasted a month or 2, but now he's great in the mornings and just hollers out "mommy, daddy, I'm awake!" when he wakes up and we go in and get him and he's very happy and cooperative. So I ditto pp's advice to just let him be and give him a little time to wake up on his terms.

libbyann

Thanks, MC! If he ever wakes up happy, we usually do let him relax in his crib until he starts yelling for us. But usually he wakes up screaming his head off, lol. I'll keep that in mind for when he's in a toddler bed, though!

rssnlvr

Ali is way more grumpy in the morning when we try and do too much, too soon. I let her stand in her crib while I move around her room, chatting to her before I pick her up. Some mornings, even when I pick her up, she insists we sit and snuggle and read a couple of books before venturing out of her room. Then we go to the kitchen for milk and breakfast before I even think about changing her diaper or clothes. Once she's had something to eat, then she's more amenable to the diaper/clothes change. (I figure I'd be pretty pissy, too, if I was all warm and snuggly and then the very first thing that happens to me in the morning is being forced to be undressed/cold.)

balihaigirl

L does this in the mornings as well.  We usually just leave him in his crib for about 15 or so min in the morning to allow him time to fully wake up.  On the mornings where we're in a hurry to get out the door, I usually ignore the mood swings and don't give into them -- if he throws a fit over his breakfast I ignore it and usually within about 5 minutes he'll walk over to his high chair on his own.  As far as clothes, sometimes we don't change him right away in the morning and just wait until he's more awake to do that (or his sitter changes him and feeds him breakfast on the really bad days).

GL!

Temp13436125005166

I think the milk is a great idea, we give both kids milk first thing in the morning to get something in their stomachs. And ditto on bringing it right into the room when you get Will, you might just try giving it to him (instead of asking if he's already grumpy).

Personally I think it is too much to ask for a 2 year old (or even a 3 year old) to be polite and have good manners in the morning.  My kids sometimes wake up and tired, hungry, and/or just want to have some reconnection time with me.  So I try and get them something to eat and spend some time, listening, snuggling, hugging, reading... whatever it takes to just connect with them.  Once they get that they are happier and ready to move on with the day.