Sometimes, usually near the end of the week, we have excrutiating evenings at home. The boys will be so discontent. Whining and crying over nothing; unhappy over everything; and generally just in a foul mood. There have been nights, literally, where they have spent more time crying than doing anything else. This is extremely hard on me. Not just because of the immediate and heightened stress factor, as you might guess, but mostly because I miss them so much during the day.. the last thing I want is to deal with “wine-berries” all night too. I want to enjoy their company, and I want them to be happy.
The worst part of it all though, is when they are both crying in stereo. With Ant, I can handle his crying a little easier. He is still fairly young and so his crying sounds much like the “waaah-waah” of the infant variety. Bean, on the other hand, is a Big Kid. Therefore, when he cries it sounds more like “uuuh-uuuh” and in fact, it occurs to me that he need not even use his voice to cry anymore. He just does.
So my question is, at what age do they stop verbalizing their tears and learn to cry silently? Because the really rough nights are enough to drive me insane. When I have stopped yelling at the boys and started talking really quietly to them in the midst of their storms, I don’t think that is a sign of coping well. Indeed, I think it means I am even closer to losing my patience entirely.
my daughter is almost 5 (in April) and she’ll still use loud voices to express her feelings from time to time. so the answer to your question has got to be after they turn 5…
It will be well past the 5 yr mark, but will lessen as they age. Your babies are crying because they get your attention that way, even if it’s negative attention, and the fact that they are tired. Just my 2 cents worth, I could be totally off base.