- Take a deep breath. This isn’t as bad as it seems. People aren’t staring.
- Take another deep breath because your child just took a deep breath in order to increase his own volume.
- Attempt to ignore the tantrum and pretend this isn’t happening – in a very public place.
- Try reasoning with your tiny tantrum thrower. Come to understand that toddler terrorists don’t negotiate.
- Try threatening with warnings of discipline and bodily harm. Get kicked in the shin instead.
- Walk away. Pretend it’s not your child and wait for someone to call DHS on you because you just abandoned your toddler in a busy building.
- Try bribery. Depending on the bribe, tantrum might stop. And then you can stop feeling like a decent parent because you just bribed your child with Dove chocolates and a pony.
- Try waiting it out. Then come to realize that your toddler is going the distance with this tantrum and that “waiting” is going to last a good half hour.
- And when all else fails, bodily haul your tiny terrorist off the premises and ignore all the dirty looks people are shooting in your direction. Those naysayers will have a good dose of karma coming back their way.
We were at the Iowa State Fair when
Lucan threw a massive fit about not being able to play with the water in the
hot tubs (we were probably only a tantrum away from him stripping down and
trying to swim in the hot tubs). I tried to pretend Lucan was fine. I tried
walking away. I tried bribery with a warm chocolate chip cookie (he crumbled it
and threw the pieces at me) and finally we gave up and hauled him out to the
car and home for a nap. Sometimes the
only thing that will fix a bad mood is a nap!
1 comment:
I've so been there, friend!
Glad you have photo proof for later. Sometimes we pull out the video camera when our kids are melting down!
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