These are not fun, I'm here to tell you. Tantrums are not fun on their own, but mix with that verbal skills that are still in the making and you have a very frustrating time for your coming-up-on- three year old, not to mention her parents which are desperately trying to understand her irritated, expressive rants.
Just earlier this week we realized that we needed to come up with a decisive, solid and dependable response to our daughter when she expresses herself in such a violent manner. By violent I mean loud, strong, and radical----basically a 'meltdown'. These happen most often when she is not getting what she wants. Sometimes it happens because she is not being understood properly, however those are minimal.
Loud, public ie., on the kitchen or living room floor tantrums are not something we wish to foster. Expressing yourself is one thing; publicly coming apart at the seams in a hurtful way, is a different animal altogether. We quicly realized, "Uh oh. We better do something about this possible pattern and Fast." In my mind I saw this little vignette down the road of a situation like this left alone and untouched and man, it was not pretty.
So far, so good. We've implemented a few boundary principles and directional cues. We did a little research and polling of our own from other parents. We have implemented what we learned with pleasing results thus far. The opportunities to test out such theories at this age are numerous. It's a time of compact experience: a lot happens in a short span.
Shayla is such a darling child and so sweet. She's a very quick learner as well. There's nothing wrong with being head strong. It just has to be directed in the right way. Yes, there certainly are right ways and wrong ways to do it. She's certainly teaching me a lot about life....and God, coincedentally.
This is such a poignant way to learn what it must be like for the Higher Powers working with Us. Comical, to tell you the truth, in a funny and sometimes not so funny way.