Little Sprout is a very strong willed child. Whenever we say no to her, she erupts into a full blown tantrum. She has even begun throwing herself onto the floor while she is screaming.
There is always the hope that she will grow out of this, but I don't think so. I think that the next 17 years are going to be some of the most difficult of my life. After all, if she reacts this way now when I tell her not to stick her finger in a light socket, what is she going to do when I tell her not to break curfew?
Such excitement.
4 comments:
OMG, sweety.... yep, you are in for a long, hard fight. DD, at 10, STILL throws a tantrum (about 50% of the time) when directed to brush her teeth. Showers are frequently a point of contention. So is washing her own clothes (which I stopped doing when I realized that she was just throwing them back on her bedroom floor). The best you can do is to choose your battles wisely, stick to your guns over the important-to-you issues, and make sure that she doesn't truly hurt herself.
(The currently important-to-me issues for my fights with DD are "take care of your teeth because they're impossible to TRULY replace, not to mention expensive as hell to fix", "I'm NOT your slave and will NOT be doing your bidding just because you say so", "a stinky child does NOT reside in MY house", and "School is NOT an option, you're going, and you're going to do your darned best and graduate some day!" Anyway, those are the few things I'm strictest about.)
My "darling" child has just informed me that she is NOT spending the night at her grandpa's house while DH and I go out for dinner & get a night without her. Yeah, ok. Another fight she's not going to win. I just hope she doesn't behave abominably for my dad. Because that will earn her a good hard butt-kicking by all concerned parties. *sigh*
Teenager threw tantrums at that age, and it did stop by the time she was roughly 4, give or take. LB never threw tantrums per se, but was really good at giving the Evil Eye. I can take that over screaming any day.
When Teenager did, I would let her lay there on the floor kicking and screaming as I walked away. I would be within eye shot to make sure she didn't hurt herself, but would not be in her range of view. I meant business and I stuck to it. She eventually cut it out.. She tried it on Bear and he was even more take-no-nonsense than I was. She figured that out really quick.
He would actually take the object she was screaming about and throw it in the trash right in front of her. OOoooo.. talk about one pissed off kidlet. But she realized that if she didn't want said object to go bye bye, she had to cut it out. She did.
Kati-
Ouch! I hope all goes well with DH and Grandpa so you can have a nice anniversary date with hubby! Unfortunately right now, I have to be strict about EVERYTHING with Little Sprout. Poor thing! Her mean Mommy wont let her play with electrical outlets or knives!
Mysti-
Wow! I don't know if I could be THAT tough with my kids. I applaud Bear's ability, though. I bet Teenager learned REALLY FAST! Mostly I ignore the tantrums, but I am getting a little tired of it. I like things quiet, and Little Sprout is dead set against peace in this house. *smile* Mommy will win eventually, even if I have to wait until she moves out!
LOL I've gotta say, it's things like that, that I've NEVER had a problem with DD about. As a matter of fact, I wish she'd be a little LESS apprehensive about knives. She doesn't even like to touch the steak-knives enough to put them away, and she's 10! And she only touched a hot burner ONCE (thankfully, it'd been turned off a couple of minutes before so it wasn't as hot as it COULD have been)! And she never insisted on taking her diapers off & running around in the buff. And she only cussed once. (She stopped when I told her that those are "grown-up words" and that until she was 18 and had learned to use the REAL english language correctly, she didn't need to be using THOSE words.) On the other hand, she doesn't think her dad should be allowed out of the house without her in tow, and certainly not with ME, unless she's got other plans first. She refuses to brush her teeth without a fight. She hates showers and is only just starting to "get" that her hair MUST be brushed regularly if she doesn't want it to hurt when it finally happens by MY say-so. She argues to NO END about doing her school-work decently. Hanging out with her best friend is more important than getting laundry done, and if we say otherwise she starts pitching a fit.....
LOL Yeah, it's NOT easy. BUT, if you and your hubby are on the same page about how to handle the tantrums & keep Little Sprout from taking over control of the house, it'll be much easier in the long run. It gets EVER-SO-MUCH harder when one parent allows the child to run the house and the other parent try's to maintain control. My DH is a push-over with DD, where as I tend to be the "hard-ass-bitch" in the house.
Best of luck with keeping your sanity while being screamed at by Little Sprout for NOT allowing her to cut her fingers off or give herself a permanently curled head of hair. *wink*
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