h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If I was acting up in public (which seldom happened), Mum would use the 'walk away' treatment. The reason this worked had nothing to do with 'removing the audience'. It worked because no small child (and we are talking about toddlers) likes the idea of being abandonned by its mother. The tantrum would stop and I would toddle off to catch up with Mum.

If I threw a tantrum at home, Mum's response would be "Ooh! The 'stamp-your-feet' dance! That looks fun. Do it again. Can I join in?" It's hard to throw a tantrum when your audience isn't taking you seriously and is turning it into a game!

I gave up throwing tantrums at a fairly young age, 'cos it didn't take me long to realise they weren't getting me anywhere.

I can't remember ever throwing one. I was a very quiet child, and so was my sister - I can't remember ever hearing her scream, not even as a baby. I honestly don't know how my parents did it. When I was very small, I would only cry for a reason (eg I had hurt myself, or I was sad.) Hang on, I remember crying a lot because I didn't want to go to nursery school, so my mum removed me from it. Bad move, because she had to send me off to live with my Gran, as both my parents were working full time and unable to look after me.

Come to think of it, that was probably when I stopped throwing tantrums and became very quiet. I must have been scared out of my wits that my gran/mum/dad would get sick of me and just drop me off on the motorway or similar. *gets wistful*

Back to the point, then... they really should've left me at nursery school until I learned to behave myself.

We also used the "oh you can hit the floor harder than that!" method wth my son but we had to wait till he was old enough to be aware of himself.

I always think that being a toddler is very frustrating: they want to do so much, but they don't yet have the skills. The one rule we had was that if we said no we meant no, reardless of the tantrum.

Mum used "No *means* no" as well. There was also "If you cry for it, you certainly won't get it!" And my parents had a rule that if one of them said no, the other wouldn't say yes. The way it usually worked was that if we asked Mum and then asked Dad, he would ask 'And what does your mother say?' Conversely, if we tried asking Dad first, he would tell us to ask Mum. We soon learned that the only person to ask was Mum, and if she said 'No', forget it!

My sister was the tantrum thrower from hell...
One day in the middle of the supermarket my mum got fed up.
She threw herself on the ground and thrashed and screamed and yelled and threw the hugest tantrum. She got up. Dusted herself off and said to my sister "Until you can do one better than that you will not do one at all."
She never threw another tantrum again.

I think she met her match.

A wee bit like the time when my mother bit back on my brother, which cured his biting once and for all. (He was some 14 months...)

As teacher, I just feel that I should mention that some people keep havng tantrums throughout their entire childhood. i've come across them at age 16 in my classes...

_KC

16 - that means I have at least 7 years to go with my daughter?

No - she's alright, it's just sometimes that noone in general and her parents in particular understands her...

Could it date back to her one tantrum in a supermarket where her mother very cooly did the walking away routine - having checked that she was wearing clothing which would not be harmed by the state of the floor?

I guess not - they were nicest friends again before leaving the shop and (on purpose) went to do something nice together straight away...

Btw, what the wee lass wanted was not candy but - of all things - a three pound piece of cheese...

Cheese? Like in ? Of all weird things to have a tantrum about...

Cheese! Like in ! , indeed...

I suppose being is what tantrums are all about.