Please help - DS' tantrums!

OMG! All of a sudden, DS is tantrum city. He has been fairly laid back, fairly easy - is this payback? About the past month, I've been saying, "he's been having more tantrums lately." The, yesterday and today he had two huge tantrums. Yesterday, because I didn't have his songs on fast enough - resulting in him pulling on the filing cabinet where I keep the cds, tipping it over, knocking over the trash can, hitting the dog's water bowl, and a gallon of water everywhere. Then today, we werer at a playgroup, he was being a little cranky. I was holding him on my lap telling him he had to share a toy, and he started to scream and cry. We left and the whole way home (either 15 minutes or forever depending on whether you believed the clock or not) he screamed, "Wanna play nice. For five minutes. Wanna play nice." Well, yeah, I wanted you to play ncie too.

Please tell me this isn't going to last a year.

Oh, it's so not just you!

Mia is 5 months younger than your DS and I swear we have to perform an exorcism daily. It's ugly. And, like you, it's worse because she's been so easy going since the day we met her in China.

DD is having more lately too. She's always been very easy and laid back so it's tough to know what to do. Friends here have told me it gets worse at 3!! What fun!

Ryan is 22 months and what has worked for us thus far (I am sure that he will get worse as he gets older) is telling him that he can only have a tantrum in the bathroom. He tends to bang his head on the floor or cabinet or whatever is near and start screaming for his tantrums. The thing with the bathroom just stops him in his tracks and he has actually only gone in there twice to scream and hit his head. Now, he just kind of stops when I say it. :)

I have been pretty firm when he starts the bad behavior stuff like pushing things over (the dogs water is unfortunately a favorite here too) and throwing them that he gets a time out. If we are at the grocery or Target, I tell him he is in a time out and I won't speak to him. Not very effective but I don't have the luxury of leaving right then and there to deal with it. He seems to think it is funny that I won't talk to him so that normally stops the screaming at least. When I type it out like this, it seems like I have to work on that! :P

LOL at "either 15 minutes or forever..."

No it won't last all year! I've found (everyone else chime in if this jibes with your experience) that DD goes through one to two week spurts of "testing" us and then a month or two of being relatively fantastic. It's like she wants to check and make sure we are still in charge (and therefore she is still safe!). Once she has tested all the boundaries and knows where they are she reverts back to living within those boundaries - until the next episode =)!

Sometimes just reading about other kids makes you feel better. On that note our two favorite books for this are Dare to Discipline by Dr. James Dobson and 1,2,3 Magic. I reread them periodically whenever she goes through a testing phase.

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to a wonderful preschooler,
who is three and a half, Noelle!

Thanks everyone. I was just so shocked at the instant transformation when I typed this. i have a theory (which unfortuantely I'll be testing tomorrow) that it's related to DH not being home at night. He occasionally teaching night classes, and currently is teaching on Monday nights. Last week, he had tantrums Mon. night and Tues. a.m. and was fine the rest of the week. While it doesn't excuse it, it at least let's me prepare a little better (i.e. maybe playgroup isn't such a stinkin' good idea on Tues.).

I will definately check out the book recommendations. And thank goodness is won't last a year!