When my oldest daughter was ten we went to the Orthodontist for the first stage of getting her braces on. Now normally I’m a very calm mom, I don’t raise my voice, I don’t get angry and I especially don’t curse around our girls. This is a key point to my story. They call us back for her appointment and one minute everything is fine. Then the Orthodontist comes in and my daughter closes her mouth and puts both of her hands over it. I was shocked by her behavior. The Ortho explains what she is going to do and not to be scared. My daughter doesn’t budge. The Ortho then tries to pry my daughter’s hands away. After 20 minutes the Ortho is fed up with my child, tells me she never met such a disrespectful child, bring her back in six months and maybe by then she will have grown up some. I was furious at the Ortho for the way she treated my child, I was furious at my daughter for the way she was acting. We leave the office and get in the car and my daughter laughingly says, “whoa, that was close.” I lost it! I turned to her and started yelling with all kinds of curse words attached to include… what the f--- is wrong with you?! The look on her face made me froze. What kind of mom does that? We were both crying, I apologized, she apologized. Then she asked if we could go back into the office? She promised to behave. We went back in and they let us finish her appointment. I never felt so bad in my life, totally didn’t handle that situation well at all. http://marriedsingleparent.blogspot.com/

I've had my moments of yelling and screaming at my kids and even using curse words (I'm a potty mouth), but none of those seem to stick out in my mind as my worst parenting moments. Probably because I know other parents have all done the same thing at some point or another. Last summer I actually wrote a blog post about this exact thing (http://su.pr/1PO40i). My daughter was competing in a swim meet and had been working particularly hard on improving her butterfly stroke. And when the time came, I was busy chatting with another parent and missed her race. And to top it off, she did the wrong type of kick and was disqualified. And to top THAT off, I later tried to buy back her love with a smoothie. I'm totally disgusting. It may seem superficial compared to accidentally locking your kid in the car, or inadvertently drowning him with a water bottle, but the look on her face just killed me and was a huge wake up call. Pay more attention Super. Be engaged. @BeingSuper

There have been days when my son is screaming screaming SCREAMING the way toddlers do, sometimes fun screaming, sometimes PLEASE OMG PICK ME UP screaming, but just screaming. And after several hours, it begins to grate on me. Three or four times, I have screamed back. I mean, full force, the neighbors probably think I'm nuts. But it's horrible! It startles him, you can see him actually jump and have to catch his breath. And then? The crying, my god the crying. It's as if I really did "slap him upside his head". Then I just feel terrible. And typically, the screaming continues anyway.

I love that this post is titled "wost" parenting of the year ... maybe that was intentional and I missed that part, or maybe accidental. Regardless, it made me think of these moments being a combination of being at your worst and being lost = wost. We all get lost from our best or most even selves from time to time. I'm like you Alice, I yell in those moments. I am a single Mom and do feel pretty alone when I find myself in that place of woeful parenting. I'm getting better at taking a time out to breathe and do apologize a lot to my 7-year old son. I make the conscious choice to be human and real with him in the face of those moments - I try to let him know when my reactions to whatever he's doing that's driving me bonkers or making me angry are compounded by whatever stress, anxiety, or difficulty I'm going through. The times I feel most ashamed though about my parenting are the times when I stoop to his level. When I mock him or mimic him being totally whiny. I've read some books that say this is a useful tactic, but still it doesn't sit right with me. It makes me feel bad and immature and I don't think it teaches him anything. Norma@ www.novemberjuliet.com

Screaming at my daughter is the lowest rung of crappy-ass parenting that I reach and I feel horribly guilty afterward. Now I literally close my eyes and breathe deeply when I feel that feeling creep up on me. It's that same feeling that Heather describes on that day she was trying to give Leta a bath. I close my eyes as the madness passes. I'm still pissed off for whatever reason but I regain control. It's cut down on the screaming considerably.

Well first of all I was relieved this episode didn't have anything to do with the Gosslins or the Octomom. Secondly, I've done everything that's been mentioned, or at least a facsimile of it. But I do remember one specific instance when my oldest daughter was about eighteen months old and was just ballistic. My patience was spent and I knew it. So I picked her up, brought her into my room and held her face close to mine and with every once of self-control I spittled out through my clenched teeth, "Mommy needs a time out!" and left her on my bed to scream. Almost ten years later and I can still remember everything about the room; the closet door was open, the light was on. The guilt followed me out of that room and into the next decade. www.BuenoBaby.com

First of all, i have to say this one of those topics that i'm glad was brought up, i think makes me and ALOT of other people feel better to know that there are other people who go through these horrible moments of absolute "spur of the moment rage"...so to speak. Cause let's face it, that's exactly what it is, the blood just rushes to your ears. My son is a year old, and as embarrasing as this is too say, i have on numerous occasions when he has been screaming crying for....awhile, which seemed like a decade, i have let myself scream back, or even say curse words. Cause all you want is to have a moments peace, so you can hear again. And you know that they are dry, full, and everything else in those areas are taking care of...so why are they screaming when you are trying to put them down for a nap...why?!! And you do feel so guilty afterwards, cause you feel like the most horrible parent..like "oh my god i just screamed at child for crying." Your anger takes over in those times of "Oh my god i'm going to jump out the window!" I only have one child at the moment, i can't imagine having multiples all screaming at the same time.

As always, momversation makes me feel, well, NORMAL! I, like everyone else has been saying, have lost my cool with my baby, and the gut-wrenching, heart-breaking guilt gets me every time. To yell at a nonverbal, scared or upset child logically is silly and ineffective, but I think EVERY mother has been pushed to the edge where yelling seems like the only available option left. As long as physical violence is out of the question and this isn't a constant and recurring thing, I say it's okay to let out steam sometimes.

When I think of my worst parenting moments, events involving poo are what come to mind. I flip my lid. I'm irrational and impatient and angry the entire time I'm cleaning Moanna and the bed and the walls and the bathroom. However, I feel the worst when I want Moanna to go to bed. I'm exhausted and numb. In those moments, I'm totally detached from Moanna. I don't care if she's playing or not, if she's happy or not, if she wants to snuggle or not. I don't care. I just want her to go away. I want her to go to sleep so that there is silence, so I can sleep, so I can watch TV, so I can eat, so I don't have to listen to her go on and on and on. Wow, that sounds really bad doesn't it? I must warn you, I may cry because I did this to her tonight. I had to get up at 5:00AM and drive an hour and a half to work for the day. My husband is out of town, so it was all on me. I had to get Moanna from the sitter, feed her, play with her, keep her happy and do everything else that needed to get done. Finally, at 8:30 (which is early for her), I was like, "I can't handle this anymore. I need you to go to sleep, so I can shut off this auto pilot I've been on and regroup." The girl wasn't even bothering me, she was watching Dora in a different room. I laid her down, gave her kisses, said goodnight and shut the door. She cried and cried and cried. "Mommy, I want to snuggle. Mommy, I don't want to sleep. Mommy, mommy..." I ignored her and let her cry it out. Not five minutes after she stopped crying, I felt the guilt hit. I was officially the worst parent of the year. I had let Moanna down. I didn't come to her rescue. Had she given up on me? Because, I couldn't keep myself together and enjoy the evening, Moanna's day ended badly. I missed her. I felt awful for not taking the time to give her the time she deserved. Those are the moments that I feel like the worst parent in the world.