Temper Tantrums

Child 3 along with the rest of us is exhausted, we have a had a fantastic weekend with prom nights, picking up child 2 from his Paris trip, a magnificent school performance of We Will Rock You, a night out with friends and so on. The late nights and excitement led to a return of the witching hour, that hour before bed. This is the hour that lasts forever, where what ever you as a parent does is wrong, where your little darling pushes at all those buttons - forgetting of course that Mum and Dada are tired too. Mum and Dad of course are the adults and we have to try to maintain that pretence although actually I quite fancy a little bout of screaming incoherently, stamping my feet, slamming a few doors and then a short burst of tears. In fact it would probably make me feel better!

Child 3 of course is now sound a sleep, tucked up in bed surrounded by her cuddly toys dreaming of magical places, her upset and rage no doubt all forgotten.

Tantrums are quite accepted in our youngsters, even child 1 on occasion will "throw her toys out of the pram" over something small, whatever it was the tipped the balance is probably not what the real problem is!! This is when a bit of calming down time, an olive branch offered or accepted and a hug and some time to talk is required.

This thought made me think about some of the shocking behaviour I have witnessed by some adults in the playground last week, all because they aren't getting their own way. I really shouldn't be surprised, yet I always am.  Somewhere along the line were they not listened too properly, were they not taught within a safe environment that it is ok to be angry but not ok to vent and scream because something hasn't gone their way. We need to be able to work through issues calmly and rationally so that we can resolve them, taking into consideration what is best for everyone not just them

So tomorrow, I need to perhaps offer calm, an olive branch and time to actually listen to the concerns being aired!

My tantrum is now over, thanks for listening.