We are coming home from karate yesterday and Emma declares that she wants apple juice. She had just had an apple and drank apple juice before we left the house so I told her she could have water until dinnertime. What then followed was one of those experiences where you sit back and wonder what in the world is going on in their mind. She screamed for 10 minutes straight that she wanted apple juice. After no success in try to reason or distract her I ignored her, yet she still continued. But what I wonder is this, does she do it to drive my crazy and thus submit to her will? Tempting as that is, I know giving in only makes the next fit last even longer. Or, does she just really think I don't understand that she wants apple juice because if I understood I would give it to her. Or, my last thought is that she just gets so worked up and frustrated that she really doesn't know what else to do. She thinks, "Life is unfair and I am wronged because I can't have what I want when I want it." So she just says the same thing over and over again because she does not yet know how to express her feelings.
I choose to think it is the last. It is the easiest to forgive. I somehow found humor in the situation and Jared and I had a talk about why little kids do such silly things. What doesn't drive you crazy makes you stronger, Isn't that how the saying goes?
And for anyone wondering I just barely put my Christmas decorations away on Monday. Why would I rush to put them away when Joseph loves taking the ornaments off and scattering them all over the house?
2 comments:
I am waaaaay behind on your blog. And you know why? Because your name starts with S and I always check my blogs from top to bottom and run out of time before I get to S. So today I said to my self "Self, put away your silly little tendencies and start at the bottom." So here I am, ready to catch up!
On the tantrusm, I remember reading that toddlers get into this tantrum and then they don't know how to get out of it. It's like they've backed themselves into a corner and not knowing how to come out of the corner freaks them out and they get more and more upset. Compare it to those hormonal teenage days when we'd yell and scream at our boyfriends and get so worked up and in our heads we're thinking "It's not REALLY that big of a deal is it??" yet we're already invested in the fight so we're not gonna back down.
LOL. Ok, that is one way I can relate a little better.
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