Screaming 3 yr old

lindseywit

I am a SAHM and I babysit some of my friends kids.  I have a 3 yr old little girl who cries and screams when she doesn't get her way or whenever she feels the need to just cry and whine.  It drives me absolutely insane.  My son has never ever behaved this way so I have no idea what to do with her. I have tried quiet time to herself to settle down and she just screams more.  Any ideas??? Please, please help me before I lose my mind.  TIA.

KibbieRose

Have you mentioned it to her mother to ask what you can do when she's like this?

I have a 3 yr old that acts the same way... We actually got a call from school this morning and they said he wanted a toy that another kid had and threw a fit because he couldn't have it. When they tried to put him in time out he started screaming and wouldn't stay in the chair, and even started throwing things and knocking over chairs.

At home, when he throws fits, he sits on his bed with the door closed until he stops screaming. "Time out" STARTS when he gets quiet and can sit quietly for 3 minutes (with both of our kids, they get their age in minutes for time out). If he would like to scream for 2 hours, before his 3 minute time out starts, that's his choice. Or, he just sit quietly for 3 minutes.

When he's home though, he doesn't throw things because he knows better. This is only the second week of school, so I think at this point, he's testing his boundaries to see what he can get away with. My MIL is really soft on him and babies him, and he'll get out off the bed when they have to put him in time out and run around screaming and refuse to be listen to anyone, because he knows he can get away with it. He wouldn't dream of getting off the bed when he's here.

Sorry, I know that was probably more than you wanted to know about my kid, but my point is that kids will do what they know they can get away with with whoever they are with. She may not act this way with her parents because they won't allow it. If it hasn't been brought to their attention that she acts this way with you, they can't do anything about it.

And from the parents point of view, when the teacher called this morning, she said she preferred that we DIDN'T pick him up, because then he would start acting that way when he wanted us to come get him, and I was overjoyed. I'm not one of those mothers who pretends not to know how bad my kid acts. I'm fully aware and embarrassed by it, and we do take responsibility and discipline at home, so to hear someone else say they weren't going to give up on my child and just hand him back over because he was too difficult meant the world to me.

AZ123

There are a couple of options. One is to create a reward bowl with little cheap treats and toys in it. Each day she stops herself from whining and crying you give her a star and if she fills the box with stars she gets a treat from the bowl. Something like that.  The other idea is that you do time outs and if they scream during time out, tell them that they can't hear the buzzer on the timer to tell them when to get timeout. The idea is to train her to control it so that you can then tell her to stop and she does.

JCM

I would give the book Magic 1-2-3 a read.  It's not a long book and a pretty easy read.  It covers so many things and whining and tantrums are one of them.  It works really well with DD.  I would also talk to the parents and see what form of discipline they use at home.