Do you ever lose it?

If you talked to my family, they would tell you that I'm pretty mellow and fairly patient. It would take a lot to set me off. Well, that was me before I had a kid. Ever since my daughter has started having a mind of her own, I seem to have had shorter patience and have been known to lose my temper now and then. Oh yes, there have been many-a-struggle over control of the spoon and who's feeding whom, over her drinking out of a open cup, over trying to give her a bath when she's having a melt down... you name it. I've even yelled at her for playing with her food and making a mess or playing with the dog's water bowl. Was it justified? Probably not. But I'm not perfect and over the course of her walking life, she's learned to push all my buttons. Making a mess is one of my buttons. I know better but I can't help it. I blame it on my mom: the worst clean-freak whom I've ever known. Like mother, like daughter, as they say. In fact, Scarlett even likes wiping down surfaces now because she sees me do it so much. So what is it about raising a young one that leads us to lose our patience? In my new mother's support group class many eons ago (or so it seems), the facilitator once said that the best thing that a parent can ever do is to be CALM. I always try and remember that but I haven't always been successful. It's hard to stay calm when Scarlett is kicking and screaming over a benign diaper change. Yesterday, as I was walking home after going for a run, I ran into my neighbor who has a one-year old and a 3-year old. She was getting ready to go to her in-laws (as her husband was out of town) because she simply ran out of patience in dealing with her little ones all day. Even worse, last night, Scarlett woke up just when we were about to go to bed. This is after having slept well all week since we got back from Toronto. We both knew that it was the kind of cry where she probably wouldn't go back to sleep by herself. So I went in to check on her and brought her to bed with us. In Toronto, she slept well with us in the same bed. Last night, she rolled around/kicked/tossed & turned in bed for 3 hours before finally falling asleep around 2am. I was actually not too bothered but my husband was livid over being kicked repeatedly and not being able to fall asleep. Did he lose his temper? Yes. The casualty: a broken night-light and a broken light switch panel. Sigh... We can all work on being better. Have you ever lost it over "minor" things?