*** finding the entertainment in everyday life ***

Monday, January 21, 2008

Full Circle Tantrums

Well, today opened and closed with a tantrum. Shelaghs whole world came to a devastating halt because while unpeeling her banana it broke. This child can't have anything broken. I have to go through the whole cheese stack to find the unbroken piece and only after I go through that exercise would she accept a semi-broken piece MAYBE if she's in the mood to be agreeable and let me off the hook. Do you know how hard it is to separate cheese from the deli especially when you asked for it sliced thin??? This tantrum was a doozy. When I told her we weren't wasting the banana and she couldn't have a new one, she flipped out and screamed and lost her mind. We removed her from the room calmly (for once) and she had to go on for a good 15 minutes. Finally it ended and she was a doll for the rest of the day. Maybe tantrums are a childs way of punching the wall or eating all the crap in your refrigerator...you just feel better afterwards.

The day went on and the kids played in the playroom and the tantrum was a faint memory...we had some neighbors over for the kids to play with and all went fine. At around 630 Rory starts crying "Mommy, I want my bed. I want to go to bed. I so tired." Seriously. So 30 minutes or so later we mosey upstairs for a bath and bed and he loses his mind. "I DON'T want tubby. I want to go in my BED". Hysterical. Joe walks him into his room for bed and the crying stops instantly "Daddy, you read me a book". Unreal...it's amazing how much of the tantruming is self-induced and sort of fake.

1 comment:

Dan said...

Wish I could offer some advice, but my kids don't throw tantrums. They just do as we say, and, more importantly, do it the first time I ask. Usually, with a polite "Yes Dad. I will eat my peas right away. Would you like me to clean the toy room after dinner?"

It's really nice to have kids who never whine, complain, fight with their siblings,or make a mess.

If they did have tantrums, I imagine the kind where their body kind of goes lifeless and they have to be physically brought to the time-out location would be bad.

One "3 year old I know" needs to have his cheesburger with no cheese (You have to order it that way) and then he wants ketchup, but on top of the burger, not under. Then he eats it with no top. The "boy I know" also is not a fan of even having certain foods on his plate - for the fear that a carrot might actually touch something he actually likes.

Anyway, wish I could help here.