banshee bonanza

Every afternoon, in fact every day, is a banshee bonanza here. If its not my kids screaming like mental patients, its me screaming at them. Hell sometimes I scream at myself out of sheer frustration. I occasionally hear my neighbours doing similar so I know its not just me but honestly it feels like I am constantly saying no, dont do that, get down, stop hitting, give it back, dont push, get out from under there, stop whinging etc etc etc. Its the song that never freaking ends!

And they're only gonna get older, so its gonna get worse right? How does one stop the yelling?

I tried to hang a load of washing out this morning and the entire time was filled with the toddlers screaming at each other, or screaming at me.... 'mummmmmy she hit me' 'muuuuummmmyyyy' 'waaaah wahhhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!' I was only a few metres from them, in full view and earshot yet they felt the need to scream at me and each other at top decible. They also have no shame and hit, slap, kick, punch, hair pull, tackle, whatever, each other, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?!!?!? For real. I know they're toddlers but they're bloody vicious once they get going. We're talking Jerry Springer style brawling minus the boob flashing. It has to be a natural instinct because they've never seen any TV other than Disney movies or kids channels, hubby and I certainly don't fight like that, so where does it come from?

I have been yelling at them to stop, I have physically pulled them apart only to have them scrabble back over me, toys, cars, etc to get at each other again as soon as I let go. Today I'm adapting a fight it out approach. I figure it ends in tears anyway so why am I stressing about it? I'm gonna let them fight it out. Whats the worst that could happen??

Oh wait?

Ok so maybe I need to rethink the fight it out approach?

xx