As serious an issue as toddler tantrums are, they’re also hilarious. I think it’s important to keep your cool when dealing with a tantrum, and keeping earplugs a sense of humor about it really helps me with that. At 17 months old, Pixie is fully into experimenting with the social tactic of tantruming and has been working on her technique. In general, she throws herself to the ground, flails her arms at you if you try to pick her up or soothe her, and arches her back. She scoots herself across the floor, on her back, by sort of throwing her body around. The best part of this display is when she wiggles herself, mid-tantrum, over to a new toy and it distracts her enough that she starts to forget she’s upset – unless she catches you watching her. Apparently tantrums really aren’t much fun after a couple of minutes if you don’t have an audience.
This photo taken AFTER nap, hence the cooperative little model.
Some nights, Miss Pixie does not want to go to bed. She may be falling asleep on the stairs, but clearly that doesn’t mean she’s tired. Her bedtime tantrum is pretty awesome: she has to demonstrate her frustration with every physical representation of bedtime. She has a crib soother, which she loves, and I’ve heard her put it on for herself at night when she needs help getting back to sleep. Normally, I give her a hug and kiss, tell her that I’ll see her in the morning, and put her down with her stuffy, cup of milk, and turn her soother on, and she goes to sleep (she doesn’t like being rocked to bed anymore). Now, when you sit her down she screams, thrashes at her milk cup, throws her stuffed cat across the crib, and turns her soother off. Seriously, the best part is when she defiantly turns the soother off. It’s like a big screw you, soother! I don’t need you!
Then she sits there and huffs. Adorable.
I’ve tried a few other responses, but at this point I just let her huff. I just tell her that I love her, goodnight, and I’m out. Generally, she cries for a minute or two, and then she’s done. When I tried rocking and other soothing techniques it just dragged on forever, so this works for us. For now, anyway.
