I don't think I'm ready for this and I know I probably didn't handle it right but I was so shocked my sweet little innocent child could act this way that I think my brain shut down for a minute.
Bean loves to go outside, doesn't matter what the temperature is, day or night, it doesn’t matter. I don’t understand this fascination as “outside” is where the bugs and critters are and that’s probably why I am so freaking white but that’s another post for another time.
Anyways, Hubz and I were outside last night after we got home from work and Bean was walking all over having a great time. I decided to go in to start dinner and figured I’d take her in with me so that my husband could finish piddling around in the yard. So I take her hand and start towards the house. She snatched her hand out of mine (what?) and took off in the other direction. After I caught her, I picked her up, or tried to. She has learned to do the “jelly body” thing where all of her bones suddenly disappear or something and she slumps down on the ground. I get her up and as soon as I get her in the house and shut the door, she does the jelly body thing again and slumps on the floor and starts wailing. Just staring at me wailing her head off. I decide to let her have at it and I walk into the kitchen. She gets up and zombie walks into the kitchen crying her head off all the way. Then she walks up to me and attaches herself to my leg and just keeps on crying and screaming and begging me with her eyes. She wants back outside.
I am still trying to ignore it but my patience was nowhere to be found so I caved. Yep, I did. I picked her up and took her back outside to Daddy. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we stepped outside, my sweet innocent child returned and she was all happy and smiling and saying “hey” to all the trees. I took her to Daddy and told him to deal with it cause I had to make dinner. Awhile later, they come back inside and she is walking in with a big ole smile on her face just loving life. I thought “you little brat”.
Have you seen your child’s alien side yet and if so, how do you deal with these tantrums? I’ve never been around kids much and sometimes I don’t realize how smart she already is and then other times I give her too much credit and expect her to act much older than she is.
Yeah, I see the demon side all the time. I try not to cave, but sometimes I do. And I try not to yell. But sometimes I do. Sometimes not even walking away works - they just follow right along, crying and screaming the whole time. But I also try to distract them to something else, and/or rationalize/explain why I decided what I decided. Doesn't always work. Sounds like you did your best. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy sons first tantrum was in a grocery store where all the balloons were blown up and littering the ceiling. The balloons were within reach so I pulled one down and let it float back up. That amused Bobby a lot so I did it a few more times. I then told Bobby it was time to go and started to push the buggy away from the balloons and the tantrum that followed was unbelievable. He screamed and did the stiff body thing where a child stiffens all his or her limbs and back and then he screamed some more. Shopping was over for the day and we left....without the balloon, but he did not want the balloon anyway. Bobby just wanted to see the balloons float to the ceiling over and over. Caving once won't create a monster child. Just gotta figure out how to pick you battles. You'll do fine and Sadie won't always act like that, but you will see it more as she get older. Kids sure know how to test the limits from an early age.
ReplyDeletehaha They are all born with the jelly body instinct I think. My daughter gets angry and hits her head and mouth into things. She has learned that tile floor and wood are not good choices for this activity. She started doing this at about 10 months. Sometimes I have to bear hug her so she doesn't hurt herself-but otherwise I ignore. We use sign language with her so she is usually able to communicate what she wants with no problem and sometimes no just means no and she has to deal.
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