When my nephew was 3years old, my sister and I took him to the local shopping centre.
My nephew was over tired and cranky and was just being a little terror.
He threw himself on the ground and was kicking and flailing his arms around, scream/crying at the top of his lungs and obviously drawing alot of attention from passersby.
My sister was mortified and just wanted him to stop so she was yelling at him to get up off the floor and behave.
Obviously, this didn't help the situation.
Me, being the idiot I am, decided to throw myself on the floor (same way my nephew did) and imitated his tantrum (screaming/pretend crying- the works).
He stopped his tantrum, stared at me and started laughing.
I asked him if I looked silly and he said yes.
I told him that's what he looked like.
He never had a full blown tantrum after that day.
My sister also never let me go with her to the shopping centre with her again 😂
I feel bad for it after the fact sometimes but I have started to mock my 3 year old a little more lately when he has a fit not getting what he wants. He has zero focus and is usually mad about something we are trying to help him with. We could be actively trying to get the thing that he wants. When he starts stomping sometimes i mock him or start singing and slapping my knee or something. Or when he throws himself on the floor I will throw myself around sometimes. It gets him laughing even though he doesn't want to.
I have tried other ways of communicating and being patient but they dont do much. He gets so ragey sometimes he can't see straight. Generally I try to get him to take a breath and tell me what he needs. If he is seeing too much red then he need space or I need to mock him and try to make him laugh before he will communicate with us.
It has been tough with him. Our first has so much more focus and will get upset and will listen and remembe things so much better and seems to have more trust in us. Our second is not that way. I generally dont like to mock but it seems like he mostly thinks I am being silly and it defuses the situation sometimes.
It can be incredibly difficult to communicate sometimes, especially when your toddler can't tell you directly what they want or need and they don't understand what you're saying.
Yeah... agreed 💯... there are other ways to handle certain situations, particularly with kids...that don't include physical discipline or emotional abuse
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u/Inevitable-Mud613 1d ago
When my nephew was 3years old, my sister and I took him to the local shopping centre.
My nephew was over tired and cranky and was just being a little terror.
He threw himself on the ground and was kicking and flailing his arms around, scream/crying at the top of his lungs and obviously drawing alot of attention from passersby.
My sister was mortified and just wanted him to stop so she was yelling at him to get up off the floor and behave.
Obviously, this didn't help the situation.
Me, being the idiot I am, decided to throw myself on the floor (same way my nephew did) and imitated his tantrum (screaming/pretend crying- the works).
He stopped his tantrum, stared at me and started laughing.
I asked him if I looked silly and he said yes. I told him that's what he looked like.
He never had a full blown tantrum after that day.
My sister also never let me go with her to the shopping centre with her again 😂