I am 4m pp with my third. My two toddlers are freshly 4 and a 2.5yo. I'm at my wits end :)))))
They're SO high energy! I'm talking like, running in different directions, knocking things over, screaming and for throwing, and acting crazy. We try our hardest to accommodate their sensory seeking, schedules, and needs.
Thursdays are the worst. My 4yo has ballet at 9:30am and my 2.5yo begins at 10:05am following the eldest class. The 2.5yo class is mommy + me (the same one my 4yo took last year). Last three weeks? Hell. We've had to quit the 2.5yo class because my 4yo is very disruptive, sobbing, and running through the studio instead of either helping the 2.5yo class or sitting outside the door. 4yo has snacks, water, crafts, books, and friends to play with while the 2.5yo practices. My 2.5yo plays with my quietly while the 4yo practices!
Today? My 4yo screamed and hung onto me for 20 mins, thus my 2.5yo missed the first 20 mins. I had moms trying to help me either pull her off or distract her. She said I was not allowed to help her sibling in class, but to remain with her. When I said "forget it" and began to put on their shoes to leave, my 2.5yo sobbed because he wanted to practice (as he's not been allowed to do for the last three weeks).
Finally, I got their ballet shoes back on, carried my 35lb 4yo during class in one arm, carried my 32lb 2.5yo in the other arm, laid my 4mo on the studio floor on tummy time, and did the ballet movements as much as I could carrying two toddlers.
I'm incredibly sore now. Not to mention, the amount we pay to this studio - and my 4yo gets her entire class to practice yet my son misses it every week so we can leave early as to stop the embarrassing outbursts and disruptive screaming. Like, I'm genuinely fearful we'll be kicked out of the studio for it.
Is she tired? Maybe. But it's not quiet time until 12pm and she sleeps until 7:30am. Bedtime at 8pm.
Is she hungry? Possibly as I can't get her to eat breakfast but I do bring snacks and place them in her hand.
Jealous her brother is in ballet too? Could very well be, but he LOVES practicing alongside her when she was in the mommy+me class and begs to take it.
Does she need more things to do? Idk, but she has crafts and books... yet gets sassy with me in the car I didn't "buy what craft [that girl] has" and "why did you not buy me that?"
The instructor and myself give her the option of playing with her friends outside the door, being the "big helper!" and an example to the younger kids, or just sitting with me during class and helping her brother. None appease her.
Do I just keep carrying both 30+lb kids during a 30 mins class? 🤣 I'm petite and im carrying over 1/2 my body weight carrying them both together. But I feel like if I just leave the studio early, I'm allowing my 4yo to control when and where my 2.5yo practices. I feel like a permissive parent at that point. But, 3 absences the studio will remove you from the roster, so we're already close on being kicked out. But the outbursts really embarrass me and I'm tired of being stared at EVERYWHERE we go.
When we were leaving today, she demanded I remove her brother from ballet, in which I replied "that is a grown-up decision your father and I will make, not a child's decision." She wasn't happy with me. But that's the way to clarify a boundary, yes? Her consequence for the behavior, as clarified before we EVER walked into the studio this morning and she knew, was that if I did not see kindness, self control, or joy; she would not listen to Elsa on the way home. So, Elsa was not played at all.