Temper Tantrums

mstopka

DD throws little fits now every time we tell her no or take something away that she is not supposed to have. I usually comfort her or distract her after she starts crying and DH just lets her be until she gets over it. I have no idea what we really should be doing when she does this. What do you do?

JoLiz

I ignore her... it lasts less than a minute and she is onto something else. 

khagan9368

I ignore her, it's harder in public but I am not going to feed into it.

Ivana_Stolichnaya

I'll redirect her attention.

christie.h

DH and I have always ignored temper tantrums. I'll just let him lay on the floor and scream it out for a minute, and as long as he's not hurting himself I ignore it and walk away.

Sometimes I'll start doing something that I know will redirect his attention, like going over and playing with some of his toys by myself, so that I'm still ignoring the bad behavior, and he quickly loses track of what upset him and gets over it to come play with me.

christie.h

Oh, I also explain things to him. Like if I'm taking something away, I'll tell him that he cannot play with it because it is not a toy, or I'm taking it away because he hit the kitty with it and that is mean and bad - you have to play gently with the kitty. Usually I get down on his level, hold him still and explain this before taking the toy away so he hears me before he starts crying. I know he doesn't understand everything, but he's getting much better.

janice74

I'll ignore him as long as he isn't banging his head too hard.  My pediatrician today told me that is the right thing to do.  Sometimes I'll start playing with a toy to redirect him, but I do not give the tantrum any attention.

Dani_0601

ChristieAnne:

DH and I have always ignored temper tantrums. I'll just let him lay on the floor and scream it out for a minute, and as long as he's not hurting himself I ignore it and walk away.

Sometimes I'll start doing something that I know will redirect his attention, like going over and playing with some of his toys by myself, so that I'm still ignoring the bad behavior, and he quickly loses track of what upset him and gets over it to come play with me.

This

AutumnBride929

Ugh, well I had a good link about tantrums that I had on FB but since the layout changed I don't know where to access them.    Anyway, there is probably a happy medium between giving them attention during their tantrums and ignoring them.  The article said something about ignoring the tantrums not being a good thing to do because it makes them feel like they don't have anyone to actually turn to when they have problems?  Obviously, they are at quite a young stage to have to worry about that right now so that's probably for when they are a little older.  I wish I could find that link though.  Stupid FB.