Updated on July 5, 2024
Are you tired of your toddler temper tantrums? Do you know how to stop your child from behaving crazy and throwing tantrums? With a few simple tips, you can actually stop your kids from whining, begging, and going wild for no particular reason. Let’s find out how to handle toddler temper tantrums and what you can do to prevent them.
Why do toddler temper tantrums happen?
A tantrum is the expression of a young child’s frustration with his or her limitations or anger about not being able to get his or her way. Perhaps your child is having trouble figuring something out or completing a task. Maybe your child doesn’t have the words to express his or her feelings. Frustration might trigger an outburst — resulting in a temper tantrum. If your child is tired, hungry, feeling ill or has to make a transition, his or her threshold for frustration is likely to be lower — and a tantrum more likely. Credits: Mayoclinic
How to handle toddler temper tantrums?
Tantrums are a much neglected and ignored area while children are growing. Tantrums are very common in kids of age between 1 to 4. At this period, kids let out their frustration at least once a week, sometimes once a day, or even more. It could be for a bar of extra chocolate while you shop or it could be they just want your attention. As far as they are concerned, whining or crying loudly will fetch them what they want, though why not do it?
Here are a few simple tips to handle toddler temper tantrums
1. Feel of comfort
Before planning to go out, make sure your kids are well prepared to go out with you. Ensure that your kids had enough food and good sleep and also carry something that is one of their favourites. When you go out shopping with your kids, there is no harm if you carry their small toy or baby teddy bear with you. That way, you make your baby feel comfortable and secure.
2. Identify what is bothering
The second one is to find out what is really bothering them. Kids below 2.5 years of age have a vocabulary of around 50 words. They can’t build a sentence out of it and they are always at a loss to convey their thoughts and wishes. They try hard to talk to you to convey their message clearly. When they fail, they get frustrated and throw tantrums. A quick solution will be to create sign language that your kid will understand. Simple signs for I am hungry, milk, teddy bear, television etc. will go a long way to ease out the kid and you.
3. Distract the kid
As an adult, you know well that when you are upset or feel sad, a little distraction, like going for a walk or driving, works wonders. You need to know that your kid also experiences these bounces of mood changes. You need to recognise them. They could be as simple as their eyes going wide open when they fear something needling off their face or a sign of cold staring at something. The moment you recognise the sign, you can distract them by making a funny face, telling them a joke, reading a story from a book or taking them out for a drive, whatever. The possibilities are unlimited. This will distract the child and bring it to normal quickly. If you ignore this, remember, your kid will get into a tantrum mood.
4. Use positive words
This directly means do not use negative words. For example, if your kid is jumping on the couch it is normal for every parent to scream don’t jump on the couch stop doing that and so on. These negative words actually trigger the reactions more and more in the kid. That is how the brain interprets words and this is also mentioned in the law of attraction. Instead, you can say ‘you are very good at jumping, should you think you should go out and jump in the garden? This will help you to jump higher.’ The moment you say this, watch the transformation in your kid, and you will begin to believe in miracles.
5. Keep a straight face
When you talk to your kid, look at him straight in the face and talk. You will also need to bend down or adjust your sitting level to look at him from his eye level. This not only brings about a sense of importance to the kid but also conveys the message that you are not fooling around and then you mean what you say. This technique of communication also helps in inculcating a sense of discipline in the long run. It is always a Win-Win situation. You can also introduce a warning sign to let the kid know he is exceeding his limit. This can be as simple as a small pinch on the ear or just a shake of your head. I leave it to your imagination but trust me the child will instantly recognise and fall back.
6. Praise the kid
Remember to praise the kid whenever he deserves it. As an adult, we know how much we are encouraged when someone appreciates us or praises us for something the right way. This is the same for the kids too. Praise their little achievements; they could be as simple as the kid deciding to sit and have his glass of milk rather than running around the house. Compliment and congratulate him. Tell him that you are so happy that he is more responsible.
Small gifts can be announced and advanced to get a task done. Thanking the kid for small jobs done for you also is a form of price. Let’s say you saw something on the floor and you asked the kid to pick it up for you. Thank him for the small act of help he did and let him know that if he was not there you would have had very big trouble. Watch the happiness in your kid’s reactions at the moment after this.
Final Thoughts
These are the few tips to handle toddler temper tantrums and make your home and your life much more pleasant. Hope that these simple tips to handle toddler temper tantrums are much help to parents, especially mothers, in facing and resolving the issue in the proper manner.
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Mathukutty P. V. is the founder of Simply Life Tips. He is a Blogger, Content Writer, Influencer, and YouTuber. He is passionate about learning new skills. He is the Director of PokketCFO.
He lives with the notion of “SIMPLE LIVING, CREATIVE THINKING”. He Believes – “Sharing is caring.” and “Learning never ends.”