Thursday, November 08, 2007

Temper Tantrum!!

Wow... has your child ever had a super-sized, enormous, huge-ass temper tantrum that lasted for an hour or more?
My 5 year old has the occasional tantrum, much like the one I described above. Hers are super cell tantrums, much like that of a tornado. She starts off starting to jump up and down, then her face gets red. Her eyes get all glazed over and red, mind you, there are NO TEARS.... her tantrums are all about CONTROL and the rage that follows if she doesn't get her way!!
Most often the things that set her off are VERY minor little nothings to any passer by. This time it was the fact that her sister, age 3, joined the conversation without being invited. She merely said ONE WORD and that was the ignition to the tantrum. My 5 year went full force into an F-5 raging tantrum that lasted 40 minutes!
When she is mid-tantrum, there is NOTHING that can be done to ease the rage. She generally says one thing over and over and over and over again. This time it was, "I want to tell you something!" to which I replied, "Yes? What do you need to tell me?"
And rather than just tell me, she kept repeating, with more and more rage, "I want to tell you something!" There was nothing that could be done. She was out of control, out in the middle of the back yard where the WHOLE neighborhood could hear her yelling and see her flailing herself on the grass, kicking and screaming. My 3 year old stared at her in disbelief and my husband simply went inside!
I stood on the patio, waiting for the storm to clear for what seemed to be forever. She kept up with fierce tempo, "I want to tell you something!""I want to tell you something!""I want to tell you something!" Screamed over and over again in an eerie rhythm. It was almost like she was in a self-induced trance or something.
After being ignored for about 35 minutes she showed signs of recovery. She had demands though and was determined to show the world that this calming of the storm was HER CONTROL and hers only. She made demands that I STAY STANDING right where I was until SHE told me otherwise. I found that amusing and started to giggle which only fueled the storm back to an F-4 for a few moments until she realized that I wasn't going to cave to her demands. She gathered her senses, stood up and walked over to me, asking for a hug.
I guess they get all their frustrations bottled up to a point of explosion and when that ignition is sparked, it just goes full force until the needle is on empty!!!
Thankfully those tantrums are Few and far between!!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never experienced it and I'm glad I haven't. I wouldn't have been able to handle that and I wouldn't stand for it. My children never even got close to temper tantrums...but, both are very calm souls.

Your story was very vivid though. I saw it all in my mind. lol

Jaq

Kim -today's creative blog said...

My neice used to do the same thing. Even walking away from her, completly ignoring her wouldn't change her. She's fine now. She's 12. :)

Hey missy......did you not notice your feature on Today's creative Blog?

Nik said...

Oh you have more patience then me to stand out there with her for all that time. I walk away just like Harel did. I never give Indi the satisfaction of knowing she is wasting my time with her stupid display of emotions. Once day I walked away from her in the grocery store as she was in the middle of the aisle having a "hissy fit". I only walked around the cornor wher I could still see her but she could not see me. Lasted about another 30 secs.. she realised I had gone. That is was not working and she came looking for me... at which point I popped back out from behind my hidy hole. She only ever tried it once more after that. Now... no issues.. She learnt the hard way!!

Cheryl Wray said...

Oh my goodness gracious!!!!

But you know...I think EVERY child goes through tantrums like that at one time or another. Just one of th elovely parts of parenthood, huh?

:-)

Loreluca said...

oh, yeah! we've been there! We usually isolate the little monster and they get their temper down... eventually. But we definitely save ourselves the aggravation. We put them in their rooms, kicking and screaming... Not fun!

Anonymous said...

WoW!!
I just had to comment on this subject of temper tantrums and although I haven't had the pleasure of knowing you personally, I found your blog through Cathy Zielske!
The title caught my eye so as I was reading this, it was like you were telling my story, verbatim, as it happened! The only thing that was different was that my 5 year old was in the bathtub for the majority of her show! The same day, the exact words ("I want to tell you something"), the trance-like look...everything! Man, was it a full moon that day? She wouldn't happen to be a January baby, is she? Kinda Creepy! Ya gotta lov'em!

Going For Greatness said...

Hi Barbara!
I do hope you'll post here again so I can chat with you! ( or email me! chkmatekng2@aol.com)
YES, she IS a January baby! Jan 18th 2002.
I'm glad there's someone out there who can relate to her tantrums!! Sometimes they are just ridiculous!!
Hope to hear from you and if you blog, I'd love to visit!
~Gabi