Meg will be 4 in just a couple weeks. I don't remember Brendan throwing tantrums at that age or older, at least not very often. With Meg, it is several times a day. Anytime I tell her no, such as "No, Meg, you can't have popsicles for breakfast" or "no, meg, your fish can't join you in the bathtub" she freaks out. she starts screaming and whining and yelling "please! Please momma!" as if that will get her what she wants. It has never worked before, I don't know why she thinks it will work now, but whatever. Crazy child. At home I usually just say "go to your room until you calm down" or spank her butt if necessary, but sometimes she does this out in public. Yesterday we were out at the grocery store and the kids had already picked out what they wanted to get with their allowance. They each only had about $5 but the idea of saving and waiting a week was too much for them, so Brendan managed to find a toy that was originally $10 on sale for $5, and Meg picked out a small Littlest Pet Shop thing. Well, all the way thru the store she kept grabbing stuff saying "I want this! PLEASE MOMMA!" (no, I'm not buying you that. It is a dishtowel.) we finally had enough and told her if she didn't knock it off, she wasn't getting her toy. OMG you would have thought we killed her puppy or something. She screamed the whole way thru the store. And the whole way home, mainly because I flat out refused to answer her. I have an amazing ability to ignore and tune out noise. :-) Scott, not so much. He was gripping the steering wheel so tight that if he had been a Cullen, it would have snapped. LOL. But anyway, when we got home I calmly got her out of the car, told her to go inside, spanked her little rear end and put her in her room. I told her she was there until dinner (about 40 min) and did it all without yelling, so I was proud of myself. She stayed there too, which really surprised me. I think she dozed off, she sat up when I came in to tell her dinner was ready but she looked pretty groggy.
Now, I'll bet you're wondering, did she get the toy. Well, it went on top of the fridge (I had planned to take it out of the cart and not buy it but in the chaos of stopping B from grabbing candy from the impulse isle and keeping Erin from climbing out of the cart even with the seatbelt and Meg crying, I forgot.). I did give it to her before bed, and I know that is kind of caving but after thinking about it, I think the tantrum was as much my fault as it was hers. She's a lot like me, she needs a lot of sleep. She will still take naps, even though her brother stopped when he was 2. However, I don't always put her down for a nap. Yesterday it was beautiful outside and after lunch Brendan asked if he could go down to our beach and build a sandcastle. She heard him and wanted to go too, and I didn't feel like being a really mean mommy and telling her no. I know how much I loved to play in the sand as a kid and didn't want to make her stay inside on a beautiful day. I should have known better, because when she doesnt nap she gets crabby as hell. So, I paid for being a nice mommy by having a monster on my hands. She rested in her room when we got home from the store and ate her dinner without complaints or problems, then played pretty nicely with her brother for the evening and took a bath without complaining, and since she didn't ask about the toy or whine for it, I thought I'd be nice and give it to her. Plus I used it as a bribe to get her to go to bed. :-) Hey, whatever works.
Gotta go get my baby girl out of her high chair. she's super crabby too, her top 2 teeth finally came in, both this week, so she's got awful diaper rash from the wonderful symptoms of teething. yay. the joys of parenthood.
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