Tempers, Tantrums and other Strange Behaviour

Day 1 and the socks are staying on even in the rock pools

Bowser likes his socks. He wears socks 23.5 hours a day and only removes them for baths. On our recent summer holiday he did not want to take his socks off on the beach. He cried, he sulked, he kicked, he threw himself on the sand. It was a new round of strange little person behaviour that I found hard to tackle. I didn’t want him to miss out on all the fun of the beach; wading, rockpooling, paddling, but short of pinning him down and ripping his socks off to his loud protestations while the rest of the beach looked on in horror I didn’t know what to do.

Trixie goes Boneless in response to losing Knuffle Bunny

Later in the holiday we met Rocky. 2 1/2 and fresh from only four hours sleep the previous night he was not in a good mood. He demonstrated the classic ‘boneless’ move where no matter what you do they slip through your grip, especially effective when they are slathered in sun screen. Another popular toddler tactic is to play the stiff card where they remain rigid and you can’t bend them to get them in the stroller unless you perform simultaneous karate chops to the knees and abdomen. I’ve experienced both these at times with Bowser – particularly helpful when you need to pick your elder child up from school and for whatever reason Junior is refusing to move. It’s physically impossible to do anything to remedy the situation without manhandling your child; what are you going to do? Drag them along the street by the arms? Yes, I’m afraid to say this has happened on more than one occasion.

You know when you get to the point with your kids where you really don’t know how to deal with the situation? It’s a really scary feeling.

Pickle was generally a well-balanced toddler and not prone to meltdowns. Friends would sense  that their kids were on the brink of something nasty and that either a sugar-level balancing snack or an energy-restoring nap was in order. I never had to worry about such things. But there is one episode burnt into my memory where her behaviour left me completely out of my parenting depth. ‘The Tantrum‘ started with something innocuous as these things usually do: I think there had been some questionable behaviour that led to me stipulating ‘no books at bedtime’. The dispute escalated as she quickly transformed into a whirling Dervish issuing banshee screams. As she threw things and threw herself I was in turn worried that she would damage the decor or damage herself as she bounced off the walls. What do you do? Restrain them so they can’t hurt themselves? Shut the door and hope that it soon fizzles out?

If your child has hit the terrible twos with gusto and is prone to tantrums you’ve probably developed ways of dealing with it with the minimum of fuss. In which case do share!

Sockless on Day 6

P.S. I’m glad to say that Hubs put his (bare) foot down and insisted Bowser remove his socks for a while on day 2 at the beach. As the week progressed so did Bowser’s comfort level without his beloved socks and on the last day he amazed me by removing them in the holiday apartment and walking to the beach sockless!

It’s all good practice – just imagine what it’s going to be like dealing with teenagers!