I'm 26 years old with a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old - both boys. My 2.5 year old has been hard to handle since he was about 18 months old. I used to attribute it to the "terrible twos" but it has gotten consistently worse. I'm actually in tears as I'm typing this....I'm at the end of my ropes....I just don't know what to do. His behavior is literally ruling our whole life. We dread going ANYWHERE because no matter where we go with him, even if it's somewhere fun, he acts up. I'm a stay at home mom, my husband is in the army and is currently away for a month of training. Later on this year, he's leaving for his third time in Iraq. He's only been gone for three days now and I feel like I can't take this anymore. My two year old kicks me, punches me, slaps me, destroys EVERYTHING in the house within his reach, bullies our 6 month old by constantly taking his toys away from him. When we're out in public, he throws HUGE tantrums - just anything can set him off. He is constantly jumping on the couches, climbing, pulling my hair, throwing food all over the house....I could go on and on. I know this may sound like typical two year old behavior but I've been around kids my whole life, I have a really big family and have worked in daycares and believe me, this is way worse than normal two year old behavior. He screams at the top of his lungs, just to annoy us....he hurts our dog and our cats so now, we just keep our dog in our back yard and our cats on our screened in front porch. He has me in tears on a regular basis.....I've tried time-outs...consistently for about 5 months and he will just sit there, take them and he's smirking the whole time then goes back to doing whatever he was doing before...so I'll put him back in...it's a cycle and it's not working. I feel so secluded and because of his behavior, any friends with kids I've made have told me that we can't hang out anymore because they don't want their children around his behavior so I now have no friends here. I don't have family nearby either...I'm so scared of my husband leaving for Iraq...not only because of the obvious danger he'll be in but because I honestly don't think I can handle our 2.5 year old by myself for a year....

I feel like the most horrible mother ever because 90% of my day is spent dealing with him and our 6 month old hardly gets any attention. I feel like I should enjoy being with my child...This is a time in his life I want to be able to cherish, I want to be able to look back at it with fond memories but if it continues like this, I know I won't. I want to be able to bring him out to the zoo without him trying to throw rocks at the animals or screaming the whole time (yeah, it happened)....I feel so overwhelmed and so alone...any advice is welcome....I just need help.