My daughter is just shy of two years old.
She is adorable, hilarious, musical and downright beautiful.
She is also trying to navigate the world around her, assert her independence and test her limits. It makes for a fun time.
My son (in hindsight) was a fairly easy toddler. He had tantrums, sure, and we had a few months where we dealt with some biting issues, but he was NOTHING like this sister. She can be downright mean.
And the screaming…Oh My Gah!…the screaming.
I feel like she is at such a tough age…just on the cusp of time-out and other discipline truly working. Most of my discipline techniques involve removal from the situation and changing up the scenery. But it’s time for something more drastic. It’s time for me to ignore her.
I feel mean just writing it down, but she’s not a baby anymore (sniff) and I need to stop catering to her. She’s old enough to know better and I can’t have her manipulating me.
So today, I started with something that should be easy but, in fact, is really hard for me – the car.
Usually she screams and whines at least 75% of the ride, especially if she doesn’t have her paci and lovey (which is an entirely different issue). Normally I would talk her through her fit. “Mommy can’t help you right now. I’m driving.” “Sorry baby, mommy is busy.”
And sometimes no talking, just really irritated yelling.
“That’s enough. We are almost home. CHILL OUT!”
Not today.
Today we rode the entire way to school and I didn’t acknowledge her cries (ok, maybe once). She would whimper, then talk, then silence. She’d start again and it would stop.
WOOHOO! It’s a start. A slow, but much needed start.
I’m going to go all Super Nanny and start putting her in time-out when she hits her brother or pulls his hair. And when she walks away, I’m going to walk her cute little booty back. It’s going to be annoying…and hard…and sometimes will seem futile.
But I have to do it.
A few days of chaos and irritation will be worth my sanity…….
Right?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good job mama. We are actually having some screaming issue with Jude, it’s a recent development for how he reacts to getting in trouble. We fought with him over it for awhile but have now resolved to just send him to his room and ignore him. I’ve read a lot of advice on dealing with screaming and it’s 1 part them not being able to properly express their emotions and 2 a way to get your attention. So for Jude we ignore the screaming and when he’s stopped we try to evaluate his emotions and learn how to properly express them.
It’s incredibly hard because it pushes my buttons but it’s actually working. If I respond to him loudly it only makes him scream louder but if I respond quietly or not at all he eventually stops.
I had all but convinced myself that this stage never happened. But I know we are just around the corner with Cal. You are doing a great job!
Right there with you…the screaming is about to send me to the loony bin! But now that we know she is starting to really get what we tell her? Yep, time to enforce some consequences. The time outs are in our very near future!