So my perfectly behaved child has suddenly hit the terrible twos head on. Aiden has always been SO easy and so even when he's not easy he's probably still easy compared to some but man I am struggling! Aiden has started throwing tantrums about EVERYTHING. Anytime he gets told "no" or I won't let him do whatever it is he wants to do at the moment he throws his head back and lays screaming on the floor. Ok it's not quite that bad but some days it feels like it. He has learned that throwing his head back gets him hurt so now he throws his head back slightly and slowly lowers himself to the ground where he continues his crying (it's actually kind of funny but I ignore him so that he'll stop after about a minute). Timeouts do nothing because he loves being in his crib and will play in there for hours and the timeout playpen is like his crib so he just talks to the closet. Seriously he's weird... Taking away cars works for about a minute and then he goes back to playing. I don't know what to do to get the message across!! I should probably be grateful that he only gets mad for a minute and then is fine but on really bad days he's only happy for 5 minutes before he's found something else to be mad about. He thinks it's hilarious to do things that drive me crazy (pulling plugs out of the wall for example). I'm so excited for summer, this kid just has too much energy and is too cooped up.
But after I cry out my frustrations because I love him so much and I hate being mad at him and I hate him being mad at me I go to sleep. He seems to recognize two bad days in a row is not a good idea and the next day all he wants to do is crawl up into my lap and snuggle with me and give me hugs all day. Then he goes to play and does something to make me laugh and he loves to make me laugh so much that he'll do it over and over again laughing with me. So I go from day to day feeling as if I can't do anything right to I'm doing everything right. Thankfully he has more good days than bad and today happens to be a good day and I am so grateful for that.
running to come see me just because I called him
He is the best boy ever and it's days like this I know I'll survive these terrible two's. Ha!
4 comments:
Ohhh boy. Here we go! I've gotten a small taste of the terrible two's the past 3 days. Bailey has been throwing tantrums and it's very embarrassing when she does it in the store! I like to call it the "limp noodle" haha. I'm at a loss for what to do too. I think ignoring him is good but when you're out and about that's kind of hard. I couldn't just ignore Bailey when we were in the middle of the store and everyone was staring haha. I don't know if there is really anything you can do when they are throwing a tantrum except just not give in to whatever they want. They are probably still a little young to understand the concept of timeout. GOOD LUCK!!!!! :)
Yeah the American academy of pediatrics book I have said he's old enough for a time out and sometimes it works but usually only for a couple hours at most before he's doing it again. In the store I just take him away from whatever it is he's freaking out about and that helps, he's usually pretty good in stores though. He has the hardest time at other people's houses because our house is so baby proofed and he knows the rules well enough that I can just let him wander around and not worry about him so he doesn't understand why he can't do that at other houses. Ignoring works when he's doing it for attention but nothing seems to work when he's purposefully getting into trouble just because he's in a bad mood. The only thing that seems comforting is supporter this stage isn't supposed to last long
Keep doing what you're doing! Time outs over and over... they only work for a couple hours because his attention span and comprehension for putting two-and-two together is still SUPER short! He's little! (does that make sense? it's pretty worded) Take him away from whats causing the break down, ignoring the tantrum... You're doing everything right! It's hard but a lot of times once he's old enough to communicate he'll calm down... (according to one book lol)
Good luck! Call anytime you wanna vent, it helps too!
Thanks! :) that does make sense. I started taking him outside 30 mins a day and that seems to really help lower the tantrums. I think he just had too much energy so thank goodness summer is coming!
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