Today, I took Sam to play at his friend Thomas's house. Thomas has one of those "cozy coupes", they are like the Ferrari of the 2 year old set. Sam doesn't have one and really loves it. While trying to facilitate a little turn taking, my child throws his body to the ground like he had been KO's by Mike Tyson and wailed uncontrollably for an uncomfortable amount of time. I finally had to scoop him up and take him home. He couldn't get control of himself. It was so embarrassing. I have never seen him act like that. And, although, I worked with toddlers for years and was trained in dealing with behaviors...why do the measures that I was trained to apply, not work on my own monkey? Why was it so easy at work, but with Sam I feel helpless and clueless?
It used to be that he whined when he was tired, or hungry. But, now it seems to be growing into his major form of communication. Am I not giving him enough playtime? Downtime? Snuggles? Timeouts? He just seems so frustrated! It breaks my heart and makes me break out into a sweat all at the same time.
Sam starts going to a little Pre(play)school three mornings a week in September. I am hoping that this will help him learn some skills, such a independent play and turn taking. I realize it isn't realistic for toddlers to share all the time, but maybe it won't be so traumatic when he is asked to share.
I leave you with this:
The Toddlers Creed
by Dr. Burton L. White
If I want it,
IT'S MINE!
If I give it to you and change my mind later,
IT'S MINE!
If I can take it away from you,
IT'S MINE!
If it's mine it will never belong to anybody else,
No matter what.
If we are building something together,
All the pieces are mine!
If it looks just like mine,
IT'S MINE!
If it breaks or needs putting away,
IT'S YOURS!
3 comments:
I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through.
All I know is that when I threw a tantrum my mother ignored me and I stopped. I have no idea if this technique is acceptable or common.
We'll call tantrums reason #1,235 why I am not having children!
Ignoring works for us!! And the reason it doesn't work with your own is because he knows how much you love him.
oh i know EXACTLY what you mean...its the age, mia is still that way, but it is improving. i will ignore it if we are at home, or if its at a place where i am comfortable with her pitching a fit, but i would have done that same thing, okay, home we go! i think we expect more out of our kids, i can come up with excuses for other kids.
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