So far, three seems to be an age of contrasts, and, it seems, being three can be hard. On the one hand, Little O can be charming and kind and so, so funny, but then the toddler demon pops onto his shoulder and he pushes every boundary there is.
He is trying out a number of new things at the moment; pushing, shoving, biting and throw-yourself-to-the-floor temper tantrums included. The biting seems to be a reaction to the changes at preschool – he and Baby E are now at “summer preschool” with some staff and children from their own preschool and others from three other preschools in the area. We are not sure if there is a child there biting or if it just popped into his over-active toddler brain as a “fun thing to do” but we’re trying hard to nip it in the bud, especially as Baby E is his main target. Now as soon as we see him approach for anything that looks like it will involve teeth, we call out “Are you going to kiss him or blow a raspberry on him? Which do you think he’d like?”. I’m not sure how long this will work for, but so far it seems to distract him from biting and gives him a couple of other options to try.
The temper tantrums are not a new thing but are increasing in frequency. The problem is that he is clearly trying this out and he is not the best actor. Sometimes it is hard to keep a straight face. He just looks so sweet! The times when they aren’t amusing though, they can be intense. Last week, though, I read an interesting article on the Real Simple website called How to Handle Temper Tantrums. One thing I really appreciated was the HALT acronym that you should think of to help anticipate a tantrum, as they often occur because a toddler is hungry, agitated, lonely or tired. It also suggests that you validate your toddler’s feelings “A simple “I understand you’re angry” will suffice. With kids, it’s also important to let them know that it’s OK to express emotion, but in an appropriate way.”, which fits in well with what I have been reading in “How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk” by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.
Potty training is on the back burner now as he has decided that he doesn’t really want to try. And given the stubborn streaks that runs through both Husband and I, we are loath to push him too much. We’ve just witnessed his stubbornness flaring up this weekend, when he tried to get him to eat more than a couple of mouthfuls of lunch. It did not go well but then when we backed down, he surprised us by eating two servings of dinner. So, no, we’re leaving the potty training for a bit.
Oh, these toddlers. What parental punishments will they think of next?
The post The trials and tribulations of being three first appeared on An English Mamma in Stockholm.