Temper Tantrum v.1
Well, it had to start eventually. Today was a tough day for Livvy. She woke up and Mama was already gone to work. She didn't like that. She started slowly with general whining and crying for Jenny, and then she shifted gears to standing, dropping to her knees and slapping her hands on the ground. Repeat 30 times. Trying to pick her up, she scrunched herself so that i couldn't hold her close. She pushed, wiggled, writhed and screamed. It took about 20 minutes for her to calm down.
Then, later tonight, Jenny had a meeting at the house. Livvy was needy, but seemed ok. We went out to the back garden and looked for raspberries. She seemed happy, and then wanted to go inside. Immediately she went straight through the roof. She screamed, cried, threw herself down, and pounded her head against the floor. Headbutt. Headbutt. Again, trying to pick her up she fought me, pushing me away, clawing, screaming. Big tears. She would walk, stiffen her body and throw herself down. Look around to see if we were watching, stand up, take two steps forward, throw herself down. Scream! Bang, bang her head. It was almost like extreme performance art.
Jenny suggested we do some reading and come up with an agreed strategy for dealing with this. I have no child rearing experience aside from Livvy, so I've never encountered this before. It's disturbing.
Jenny said that in the past (with her little brother and sister) , what as worked was to ignore it -- leave the room, and let her work through her frustration. that'll be hard for me, so we'll see.
More bad with good. Still primarily good, though.
[NOTE FROM JENNY: during the evening temper tantrum, it really was a performance - she'd bonk her head on the floor, and then look straight at me to see my reaction. So it stands to reason that the best way to defuse the "performance" is not to watch it.
Plus, I remember having tantrums at Livvy's age. I clearly recall screaming, throwing myself on the ground, and flailing my limbs. So she may very well have gotten this from me!]



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