Ive lost my appetite, I feel guilty for not letting it go and just eating the damn pasta. I know I shouldn’t talk about myself like this but I feel stupid for not keeping my mouth shut. I fear this will continue the rest of the week. She told me not to cook for her ever again, tomorrow night the dinner dilemma will continue.

Visit them, go round, book a Friday off work and do a long weekend. Sit around and watch TV with them. Don’t ever tell them you’re doing it because you want to cheer them up, though, because they’ll feel like a kid. It made my mum a lot happier to know I was taken care of, and that her not working didn’t affect me like it would have done a few years ago. I think there’s a lot of guilt when it comes to a parent losing their job, because they have to be the provider. Even when they’re not any more!’ One of my biggest parenting fears has always been that I will royally screw up my kids. They are relatively defenseless, and I have always been concerned with sending them straight to the therapist couch. One day though, I had the kind of day my kids will definitely, at some point, relive in a therapist’s office. A couple of years ago, my mum lost her job and it affected us all way more than I thought it would. My dad and her got annoyed at each other, me and my sister felt really down (and then guilty because it was literally nothing to do with us), we sent her a fruitbasket, I’d proofread her job applications as and when she sent them, but there was a cloud hanging over all of us.

lose (one's) shit

One of my favourite bloggers, Matt Coyne from Man vs Baby, never fails to make me laugh. I’m a bit of an awkward fan girl if anything, and he’s only seen me steaming drunk so he probably thinks I’m very strange. Not far wrong to be fair.

The mommy tantrum is real. And most of us have had one (or two, or three). We’ve all lost it at some point, and it’s really okay, as long as no one gets hurt. That anger, when we lose control, is the flipside of our loving mommy fierceness. Harnessing that passion and energy is what helps us protect our children. Sorry to say, the guilt never truly goes away when we lose our cool. But we must remember that we are human. And humans can only take so much. Point is, people react to suddenly not having the cash flow they’re used to, in weird ways. Like when it’s three days before payday and you don’t want to go into your overdraft, but you metaphorically pee into the wind and go on a blow-out anyway. It often hurts extra to realize that your mom is being toxic. According to Pinsly, it can shatter the image of who you hoped she could be. But it’s also a good thing, as the knowledge may make it easier to cope with her words. “Sometimes we need to implement boundaries, find acceptance and change, set time and distance, or redirect our needs to ourselves and find healing,” says licensed professional counselor Rachel M. Abrman, MA, LPC. My sister and I weren’t exactly princesses to my dad [Bernie Ecclestone, businessman and former chief executive of Formula One], but he was soft. If my mum was screaming about something, we would always look to Dad to calm her down. Whenever I have needed him – any bad breakup, any advice, anything – he has always been there. A lot of people think of him as completely emotionless, but he’s not like that. Bear in mind that prints come unframed, so you’ll have to get them framed separately; I’m currently waiting on a custom mount for my picture so that I can display the whole thing.Although it’s a fine line, a toxic relationship isn’t always synonymous with emotional abuse, which can also come out in the words your mom uses. "A toxic relationship is a dynamic between two or more people where emotional needs generally go unmet because of issues that have nothing to do with the other person," Danielle Forshee, Psy.D, L.C.S.W., tells Bustle. While toxicity can be tough to spot, it often comes down to how another person makes you feel. “The word ‘toxic’ in terms of a relationship means that one person’s behavior leads to serious negative emotional consequences for the other person,” says Elliot Pinsly, LMSW, a licensed clinical social worker. Whether it’s intentional or subconscious, “a toxic person tends to be controlling, demanding, manipulative, demeaning, and/or self-centered,” he says. And it can leave you feeling down, or as if your self-esteem has taken a hit. Regardless of what happens, though, there are ways you can make everything a whole lot nicer. I spoke to a bunch of girls whose parents have either been made redundant, or lost their job, to see how they coped and what they did to make their parent’s lives at that point a little less shitter... Man vs Toddlerexposes the lie that, that when it comes to parenting ‘it gets easier’. But it is just as foul-mouthed and heart-warming as Matt’s first book, and will have you laughing and crying with recognition as he shares his observations and advice on everything from tantrums to the horrors of soft-play. I did not expect to be the mother I am. I just thought that Sophia would slot into my life and I would carry on as normal. I thought I would have a nanny, but the moment she was born the nurses said: “Should we take her up to the nursery so you can have a rest tonight?” and I said: “What? No, are you mad? Get away from my child!” Everything changed. When I held her, something shifted inside me.

I can't be out with her all of the time, I can't play with her all of the time, I just want a little bit of time just to hear myself think and with my exhaustion just to sit down on the sofa for a minute. When she stopped/calmed down and said sorry I would always tell her a line was drawn under it/ that was the end of it and have a big hug/say I love her. If your parents live together, still call them because there’s only so much ‘I’m sad because I have no job any more’ you can say to the person you live with until they get irritated. It feels good to rant at a fresh ear. Be a fresh ear. She raised the pitchfork over her head like an axe and slammed it down on the cooler. She wound up like a golf swing and teed off right in the middle of the driveway, sending larger parts of the cooler off into the yard. The lightness of the Styrofoam made her seethe with anger. She ran and swung, sending bits and pieces of the cooler all over the place. Shards of Styrofoam flew like feathers across our lawn. I have a newborn and a three year old and oh it is so much easier than a three year old and being pregnant! It's really tough when you are exhausted and feeling crap and they just don't get it

If letting her read isn't working, then how about audiobooks? She can lie with the light off and listen to those with her eyes closed and she may find it easier to relax and doze off when the pressure's off - even if it's much later than you'd like, although I wouldn't worry about that too much actually. Another idea might to be also get her one of those lamps that gradually fades down like the sun setting over a long period, so she can stay in bed listening to a book or reading or even playing quietly with some small toys (a couple of dolls or action figures, or a puzzle or something) while the light gradually changes and helps her wind down.