Children have a mind of their own. Treat them as adults and they behave much better, rather than treating them like a child telling them no for everything we don’t want them to do.
Toddler tantrums, hitting, biting, happens when the child is young and is unable to communicate himself in the way he wants to. This leads to frustration for the child and results in them doing things that we wouldn’t want them to do.
How do you then overcome these?
Toddler tantrums don’t happen for no reason at all. Would you throw a fit because you want to? Then why would they?
Tantrums sometimes happen for attention, sometimes over some silly things they want and sometimes if things are not going their way. Whatever the reason is, deal with it through distraction.
How do you distract them if they are crying for a cookie? Well, ask them if they want to play with water instead and keep asking things which they love doing and this will definitely put an end to the tantrum. It works and has always worked for me with my 4-year-old and 18 months old.
Don’t worry about trying to educate them if they are wrong or right in throwing a fit or if they get indisciplined. They don’t! They just learn to distract themselves to other things when they don’t find their way out and learn to keep themselves busy that also increases their patience.
Most of the times a hungry or tired child is cranky and throws tantrums. Don’t ignore your child’s needs and stick to a routine. Children thrive on routines.
Children learn what we teach them. They idolise us and do exactly the same things that we do. Have you ever wondered why do children hit and where do they learn it from?
Most of us in India hit the furniture or slap a floor if the child falls down. The child, however, is looking at you and thinks it’s absolutely justified to do the same. What starts with a floor, goes on to furniture, walls and then the people around them.
Biting and hitting also happen if you scream when they do it and they feel amused and want to keep doing it again. Please don’t react, distract and talk about it if it’s an older child. Get down on your knees and look into their eyes and talk. When you do that they listen better.
Keep trying mommies, it’s all a phase of life and will definitely get over and they will grow out of it. But if you do deal with it better, it will shape your children and enable them to handle any situation.
