Sunday, March 1, 2009

I wanna!

tAnTRuMs

I chose this picture because it is how my son looked for about a quarter of his second year. He had horrendous tantrums, some clocking in at 2 hours long. He grew out of them, but every once in a while he gets overwhelmed, too hungry, too tired, or all of the above and ends up crying on the floor as we are trying to load up the car and leave church. Yes...this happened just last week. All I could do was leave him in a safe spot, go to the car and load up my baby, and then come back for him. I just ignore it most of the time now. When he was younger I would rock him and sing to him or pay no attention to the behavior depending on the situation, and just waited it out.

If it happens in public I don't give into his tantrum and go about my business like I don't have a crying child. I get a lot of looks from other people, but I figure teaching my child is more important that other people's opinions. I know there have to be more creative ways to handle it though.

One mom just told me of a trick that I have yet to try out. She said to ask you child about something that is interesting to them and requires more than a yes or no answer. For example, you could ask, "Did you see that dinosaur walking by? What color was it?" She has a pretty rambunctious three year old and she says it works for her. I don't know about my oldest...I question whether it would work for him, but I am willing to try. Luckily he is out of the terrible two tantrum phase and hasn't even had a tantrum in the last few days for me to experiment on.

What are your tips or tricks for tantrums?
What is your worst/most embarrassing tantrum story?

6 comments:

Spring said...

Distraction totally works for me too sometimes. We'll be driving in the car and someone will be crying about something and I can't do anything about it because we're driving so I'll just say, "Hey, look out the window, did you see that brown horse." Ahh, kids. :)

Diane Bohn said...

No tantrum experiences yet, but a friend told me about when they were at Kmart, and her son was on the ground kicking and screaming, so she got on the ground and started kicking and screaming too! YES! IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!! He got up pretty quick and started pleading with her, "Mom, Stop! You're embarrasing me." Next time he started throwing a tantrum she just said, "I can do that too remember?!" And he never did it again. I sure hope I have the guts to do that when the day comes! :D I love it!

Ruby in the Rough said...

I've heard of a mother, whose son was throwing a tantrum in a store, asking other shoppers to start laughing and pointing at him. Supposedly it embarassed him enough that it never happened again.

Erin said...

I'm sure that I have not hit the real tantrums yet, but when Hayden is freaking out I tell him that I can't understand him when he yells and cries, so when he is ready to calm down and ask me nicely I will listen to him. Then I just ignore him until he calms down. At least that's the goal for me to do anyway. Distraction works really well too.

Nick said...

I have done both ignoring and distracting. I think it depends on the situation and how bad the tantrum is. I was at the grocery store once and my oldest (now 8), was screaming about something and I couldn't convince him to stop by calmly talking to him, so I decided to keep walking. I ended up the next aisle over from him and waited and eventually he came with me, continuing to cry. One older man walked by me and commented that someone needed to spank that child (not realizing I was the mom) and I said, "Why don't you shut up and mind your own business?" Eventually, he stopped crying because he didn't want to lose me again in the store. I really get miffed when people say stuff like that. They have no idea what's going on and most of the time they're older. Do they really even remember that stage of their lives anymore? When you're desperate you'll try anything. When I see a mom in a store struggling, I always give her a reassuring smile to let her know she's not alone and it always seems to help. It's always nice to know you're not alone.

Debbie and Boys said...

A subject worth discussion on this forum: allergies, food and otherwise.
I say this because you might consider food allergies as a trigger for your sons behavior.
I have learned a lot on the subject and have found that when I knew and delt with my 3 sons allergies our home life drastically changed. Theres hope that its not you, but his body coping with negative responses to food or things in his environment. I feel blessed that I know what I know now. We've spent years coping, now we just live.
Let me know if you'd like some help figuring out what he's allergic to.