When your child is screaming.......

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Hutchison on July 28, 2009 at 6:33pm

I find that trying to calm my daughter down can prolong the tantrum - If I leave her at it for 5 to 10 mins and then go in I have a better chance at getting her to stop and listen. Is after 10 a normal time for her to be awake? Maybe she just needed to process something big??

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Permalink Reply by Summer on July 28, 2009 at 9:22pm

When my 5 year old is like that I either walk away and leave him alone, because that seems to help him get through it faster, or I join in. All it takes is me sitting on the floor screaming right beside him and he's laughing hysterically in less than a minute.

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Permalink Reply by Marcelle Murray on July 29, 2009 at 12:48am

After 10pm bedtime, no ways! She is always in bed by 8pm.

Summer, LOL I've done that before. Screamed louder than her, but I won't do that so late at night LOL

Thanks :)

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Permalink Reply by Christy on July 29, 2009 at 4:37am

This may seem mean, but when my four year old daughter does things like this, I tell her that she is hurting my ears and if she wants to scream like that, she can scream alone, in her bedroom. I remind her that I don't yell at her like that, and I don't want to be yelled at either. Then, I close the door. Within minutes, she's done because she doesn't want mommy to be upset with her. Also, by 8 pm, I'm already pushing bedtime. I have three kids, and 8:30 is the magic number where they are in bed, lights out, even the 9 year old (he sometimes watches a short movie in his room at this time. I agree with Michelle....sometimes when you try to calm them down, it makes it worse....I think that has something to do with the attention they are getting for it, maybe? I find that removing my attention from my kids is enough to "train" them not to do bad behaviors....they like mommy's hugs and attention. Good luck! I'm going through the terrible twos with my youngest and am about to pull my hair out, so I totally feel ya!!

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Permalink Reply by Jackie Lee on July 29, 2009 at 2:48pm

I usually find that giving attention to these kind of tantrums tend to make them longer as well ~ although it's taken me a while lol I'm one to "talk it out" use logic to fix the situation but it really just doesn't work well for us.

I tell her, I understand your upset, and when you calm down and you're ready to read books let me know. (This happens when it's time to put jammies on and get ready to go to bed) In a few minutes I'll hear her calm down and then a couple minutes later she usually comes out with her jammies on ready to pick 2 books.

I also think that sometimes she just needs to release a bunch of energy before she can get slowed down enough to sleep. Because once she calms down she almost always falls asleep in a couple minutes. (both her dad and I both have issues sleeping because our "brains won't slow down" ~ so I can see that for her).

We also have a very early bedtime. We start at 7pm (she's 3), and she's almost always asleep by 8pm. She refuses to take a nap and wakes up at 7am no matter what time she goes to sleep, so for us earlier is better to go to bed. If she stays up late the tantrum is more likely to happen ~ overtired I think.

Hang in there.

Jackie

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Permalink Reply by Debra Webster on August 1, 2009 at 5:51pm

Is she on a normal sleeping schedule? sometimes when that is disrupted their bodies do not react well and they become very irritated. My daughter was one that had to be kept on her normal sleep schedul no matter what we had to do, or she was crazy for the entire night! If we kept her up past her normal bedtime or if we tried to put her to sleep somewhere besides her own bed it was usually a very long night of whining, crying etc...
You need to look at the whole situation to really know what to do next time! Good luck and have patience, they are only young for a short time!!!

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Permalink Reply by Sherri Owen on August 1, 2009 at 8:05pm

I've never had this experience, so I'm not much help - other than to odd something different to the mix. I've always laid down with the kids until they were asleep. Similar to family bed, but theirs. They sometimes come into my bed if they wake in the night, but I'm okay with that. I've always felt different than others in teaching little ones to 'sleep alone'. Why would I expect him/her to want to be alone in the night when they've been with someone all day long. It just didn't make sense to me :)

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