I remember when the Boy turned three; Dude and I joked about what a hype the “Terrible Two’s” were; they were a piece of cake!
Were were just lucky? Were we naturally great parents? Regardless, we sat back thinking it was smooth sailing from then on!
One of my very firsts blog posts was “Three Year Olds – WTF”; a brief but to the point “cry for help” because my child was as nutty as a squirrel turd and I needed to know if any of you were going through the same thing. No-one responded (sigh); but that is OK, there were just one or two of you reading at that point. I HOPE now some of you will respond and share some of your three, even four or five year old behaviors!
The emotional outbursts we experience daily leave us tiptoeing past him as if he was a ticking time bomb. His losing his shit because the purple mermaid and not the pink one helped Jake and the Neverland Pirates out of a bind (even though it really was the purple one; yes I know them by heart which is beside the point) is baffling to me. We find ourselves talking him off the ledge once, if not twice or more each day; over things that are not a big deal; in our eyes….
- The dog was staring at him even though he just fed him the raspberries he swore he wanted with his breakfast (but when I put them down in front of him he lost his mind because he DIDN’T WANT RASPBERRIES!)
- The dog licked his arm (even though he was hugging him)
- He wanted the juice box with the “People” on it. I have NO idea what he means because we have NEVER had juice boxes with people on them!
- His sock was twisted
- I called his stuffed dog the wrong name; well – excuse me! You only have a zillion stuffed animals and if you have read my post Meet The Gang you’d know I’m well within my rights to call them the wrong name!
- I tried to put Spiderman underwear on him and not The Hulk
- He had a boo boo on his toe and it hurt to wear socks and sneakers; so he asked to wear flip flops. Several seconds into flip flops he threw himself down on the ground crying that he didn’t want to wear flip flops; and it wasn’t because they hurt, the toe was completely uncovered, he now wanted to wear his sneakers
I read that at this age they don’t know how to express their emotions and their wants in a proper fashion; but these meltdowns are wearing on us. I thought about a sticker chart to reward him, but at this point we have so many for everything else; that I thought of something new last night! Yes, all by myself!
I am going to get a mason jar and it’s going to be his “Jolly Jar”. Here’s what I am going to do; he will get a penny for each increment of time he behaves; so for example, in the morning, if he gets up, goes potty, brushes his teeth and gets dressed without any “arguments” he can put a penny in his jar before we leave. After school if he eats his dinner he will get a penny; and at bedtime if he brushes his teeth and goes to sleep with no problems he will get another penny in the morning. We have not decided when we will empty it and let him go buy himself something, but we hope using the mason jar over a piggy bank will show him how the money is growing and hopefully it will grow his confidence in expressing himself the right way.
Feel free to try it and let me know your success! I will be sure to pass on ours! (if we have any)
Here’s hoping…..
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