Hi!
I'm usually over in the September 2013 board, but I thought I'd sneak over here and ask a question!
I'm a nanny for 3 kids and I am having issues with the middle boy right now. Some background. He is 3.5 years old and I've been his full time nanny for 2 years. Recently I was away for 13 weeks and I came back to a completely different kid.
He screams all the time now, at the slightest thing. Today he had a full blown meltdown because socks are white. The screaming he is doing seriously sounds like he is being slowly murdered... It's really alarming.
I've tried talking to him, giving him a name for his feelings, distracting, redirection, time outs, naps, taking away a toy/activity, and just ignoring him until it stops.
Nothing is helping. He ignores me, screams when he doesn't immediately get his way, and is in general a PITA right now. I know to expect tantrums... He is a toddler. But this is WAY above anything I've ever seen before.
Help?
Re: Screaming
I always liked the sound of providing words to describe his feelings but DS now uses the words as an excuse for why he's crying. "It's so hard to be frustrated, momma!" After much, much work he doesn't do it as often now. "As often" being the key phrase. That's my 2 cents.
Sounds like every toddler I have ever dealt with in daycare, and my own toddler. They go through phases, and I am betting that 13 weeks being gone, he had gotten used to not being with you, so he is adjusting to having you back, paired with just typical toddler terrorism...
I always tickle my kid while she throws fits. Total redirection. It goes from screaming at me because I put the WRONG leg in her pants first, to yelling at me to stop tickling, to giggling like nothing ever happened.
I will be glad to have this stage over, and on to a different stage of evil.