I love them..... No not really. At least not while they're going on. When finished I can laugh at the madness a tantrum is. My son had a brilliant one the other day. I asked him before dinner if he wanted spaghetti. Yes mummy. Half an hour later we sit down to eat and all hell breaks loose. I have (what was I thinking) put a plate with pasta in front of him. He's screaming and through the big tears rolling down his cheeks telling me I said spaghetti and this is not spaghetti! I say it's the same (another big mistake which sparks louder screaming) and says he can eat all the other stuff on his plate. The spaghetti trauma takes him a good 20 minutes to get over but eventually he eats all his dinner and even gets down afterwards saying thanks for dinner! Life is a rollercoaster when you're 3½ years old. Here's a picture of pasta and spaghetti next to each other. Just so none of you other mums out there make the same mistake.
Spaghetti!
Pasta.
Hahaha oh my goodness I have all this joy to come, it is a bit of a rocky road being a parent by the sounds of it, so many things you can say to your child that makes him explode! I think I shall start wearing my combat gear when he gets to your sons age and practise my very serious face! How do you manage tantrums, do you do naughty step or do you try to reason?
ReplyDeleteAs a Psychologist I do understand that effectively your child has huge areas of the brain that still are not properly switched on and one of those areas is the emotion and rationalising bit. All this swinging from one behaviour to the next I suppose is all good really because it is the brain working out these areas. However I still am going to take cover when one happens I think! :)
Hmmm, yeah how do we handle the tantrums. It's different every time. Depends a lot on the situation. Having worked with children for many years I'd love to say we do the correct thing everytime but who am I kidding, we don't:) We do our best, and I can proudly say that the nursery and my daugthers school tell us they both are very well behaved. So I guess we do something right:) Tantrums are part of life and as long as they have them at home, I'm okay with them. But not a fan of them:) The little man had a couple last few days and punishment (first 3 warnings) is no treats next friday (our treatday) He is well aware and says he doesn't like treats anymore... yeah right but maybe he'll learn:) And I agree tantrums tell you that the brain is working and the child is learning something. Hard work when they are going on theese tantrums but actually funny when you look back:) Read my post about my daugther not wanting to live with us anymore...:)(blog Archive)
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