In Which I Will Make Absolutely No Mention of My Labor

I know the obvious choice would be to talk about my 15 hour meds free searing pain in my butt labor, however, who wants to hear about that anyway? We're all moms - we've all got our own labor stories to brag and reminisce about, so why not talk about something else?

For starters, I've started this fun meme whatever you want to call it thing where you make your own Successories. If you have no idea what they are, then read my post on it over at my other blog, and check out the comments for some samples. They're quite hilarious - and worth the "labor" of clicking through them as well as making your own.

Heh. Fun labor. Who knew?

Also, I had a great time reading Janeen's blog and in fact, I'm still reading it even though I'm trying on Blended with Salt. Kelly is raising a teen and a toddler (God love her) and keeps quite a bit of humor about her. So, check her out - even labor through her old posts while you're there.

Tired of my total overuse of LABOR yet? GOOD.

And finally, my 26 month old sweet loving child has now officially entered the terrible twos. All hail the bossy, crabby, snappy, and still extremely cute child who decided it would be fun to throw a ten-minute tantrum (at home thank you all powerful heavens) and walk around with a colored pencil shoved up her nostril.

A yellow one. And I tried not to laugh. Really I did.

Yes. The child who still says "thank you lady" to the nice server at The Olive Garden but insists on doing everything (including cutting her own vegetables) on her own has turned into the evil boss I had at IHOP one summer. But now, she sprinkles just a little bit of sass and attitude on it - oh, and did I mention the "lay on the floor kicking" tantrum at the store because some old lady knocked her down?

So, I'm hesitantly soliciting advice - generally, if we tantrum at home, I leave her until she is ready to talk to me (mama don't make deals with the screaming child) and then encourage her to use her words when she is angry or needs something.

Outside the house, we leave immediately until she is ready to return to where we were with a warning.

Sound good? Any thoughts? Go ahead and lay them on me.

Holy cripey. The croc hunter bit the dust thanks to some crazy stingray!

Comments

[el-e-e]

I'm late to this conversation, but yeah, tanatrums. 26-month-old. My LIFE.

It's hard to walk away. I do Time Out in his crib, but before I get there, I usually make the JV-move of asking him a few times, what is it you want? what, honey? Tell Mama. (I'm a dope.)

[Stacy]

Tantrums in our house are awarded with an instant time-out, until it stops. At that point, I check on her to see if she's ready to apologize. If not, she stays and screams and screams and screams. It does stop…. Eventually.

Regarding the out-in-public tantrums- I’ve learned the hard way that the best policy is to treat kids the same way you would at home. Try not to care about who is watching or judging you. Otherwise, kids will learn they can get away with murder in public and make all outings generally hellish.

[jandzsmom]

Your strategy is really the best. My cute 2 y.o. is currently the most obnoxious thing on two legs and most days I can't wait for his bedtime. Unfortunately, I can't pull him out of wherever we are for a public tantrum because my time these days is so extraordinarly limited that I HAVE to finish whatever errand I am running and I often have no control over WHEN I am running the errand. I just grit my teeth and finish as quickly as possible.

[Kelly]

At home tantrums we walk away from (usually laughing at how ridiculous he looks cause, really... such *passion*!), in public ones have, to date, only happened when he's too tired or too hungry or too over-wrought-with-excitement and those aren't really his fault so we try to distract him or we just up and leave. They haven't been too bad though, so who knows what we'll do.

[Janet]

I hate tantrums. Lily is the Queen at tantrums...My ususally sweet and agreeable child can fly off the handle over a cup for a good 2 hours at a clip...it's phenomenal. I have no advice other than what you already do. Keep strong. It usually dissipates by the time they are 35.

[Amanda]

I too walk away during tantrums but most of the time my 2 year old gets up and runs after me still kicking and screaming until he eventually gets tired. This has been going on for a few months now.

[Kelly]

That's pretty much my policy, we leave until the calm returns. Public tantrums are not okay. At home, I leave until she can communicate without the screeching. It seems to be working, the tantrums happen less and less. If I could only get my husband to quit lecturing her (she's 3!) and understand that a toddler doesn't reason the way an adult does. Or at all.

and thanks for the shout-out!

[Beth Carpenter]

I understand trantrums my 4 year old is just getting out of that phrase and we did the same thing with him at home we just walked away and let him go until he realized he was not going to get a deal from me. When he had a fit out in public then we leave. I just think you are doing what you need to do when it comes to the fits. I plan on doing the same thing once my 21 month old starts.

Beth Carpenter
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