Mothering Troubles

Today was kind of a rough day for me.  My daughter is 3, and boy this age is so hard for me!  She is the cutest thing most of the time and says the funniest things, and there are things about her that I'm just so proud of and couldn't love her more.

 

But then with days like today, she just puts me over the edge all day long.  She has the most selective hearing of anyone I know.  She constantly is taking things away from her little brother (she does give him replacement toys, I'll give her that), she doesn't do what I ask until I start counting to three (I never wanted to be that mom but that's the only thing that works!), and today I actually noticed that she started lying to me deliberately.  They were little things, but I could tell it was to avoid getting into trouble.

 

I don't know what to do!  I've done lots of reading on mothering tips and ways to make sure your kids grow up to be respectable, responsible, obedient people.  Through the day these things run through my head as I catch myself doing all the wrong things when I lose my temper.  To my credit, I am pretty quick to calm down and apologize when it was out of place.

 

As I was telling my husband how angry I was getting at her, he reminded me "Melissa, she's not even half the age of accountability.  You can't get that mad at her."  He's right, but then why is it so hard for me to not expect more from her?

 

This is just my rant at the end of a long hard day of keeping the kids out of the basement/play territory while my husband has been occupying it preparing for finals this week.  But any advice from anyone would be much appreciated.  Or maybe examples of worse situations so I stop feeling sorry for myself and realize just how good I have it :).  Anyone?