OMG. She is soooo awful.

megan0071234

DD is driving me up the wall. Either she is whiney or having a tantrum all the time. Recently, she has taken up saying no when I ask her to come to me or do something. She is being naughty at bed time, and will get up like 20 times, sometimes not going to sleep until 10 or so.

I know that this is just a phase, but it makes me want to scream or drink heavily. Ugh. Any tips or advice on how to get through this? DS was so different!

Mrs_Shmoopie

OMG, the toddler stage can be so rough!  I forget -how old is your DD?  Hmm... I'm sure you've tried just about everything at this point and it all seems so long ago I'm having a hard time remembering what things worked for us! 

We definitely went through a lot of whining and crying and I always told J, "Mommy can't understand you when you're whining/crying.  Can you please try talking to me w/o whining/crying?"  Of course, he still whines sometimes but not very often. 

Some things that often worked for us was giving him a countdown ("In 5 mins we're leaving the park/getting ready for bed/going to the store" whatever).  I really think that helped us out a lot.  Also, helping him feel like he has a choice in certain things.  "3 minutes til we go to the store, Kiddo.  Do you want to wear your red or blue shoes?" 

When he really got going w/a tantrum I just refused to participate.  I'd let him be and walk away or direct him to go to his room or a quiet/safe place.  "I think you need a quiet place to calm down.  Do you want me to stay with you and hold you or do you want to be alone?"  If he chose to be alone I would go check on him after awhile, "Hey, kiddo, do you want me to hold you a little bit?  Are you ready to read a story now?"  

Of course every kid is different so I hope you get some great advice that really clicks w/DD! 

Mrs_Shmoopie

Oh, and with the sleep stuff -is it possible she's going to bed too late or too early?  If it's too late maybe she's just punchy and wound up and finding it hard to settle down?  Or if it's too early maybe she's really not sleepy and then gets herself so wound up that she stays up later than she should?  Does she still nap?  Because it's possible it may be time to get rid of her naps.  J doesn't nap at home at all anymore (and hasn't for about a year) and when he does it really affects his bedtime. 

megan0071234

This weekend was very rough- she cried at everything I did. Everything. Starting from when I picked her up at daycare Friday to dropping her off today, there was not a single interaction that didn't result in some sort of temper tantrum. She finally konked out last night I think from sheer exhaustion. I try to tell her that we can not understand her when she cries & she needs to use her big girl words, but it just hasn't been getting through.

She will be 3 next month, so I know this is perfectly normal and all, but it is so frustrating. I put her to bed between 7:30-8 & she has a good bedtime routine. I think I need to invest in some blackout shades, because the fact that it is still sunny is really not helping. Some nights she just falls right asleep, but other nights she jumps on the bed, or empties her dresser or pulls all the books off her shelves before she crashes on teh floor or in the closet. I wish she still napped, but she is just anti sleep in general, although she will take the occasional nap at daycare when whe really has a long night.