Temper Tots

“Ah! What a wonderful morning. It’s going to be an amazing day. Wait… I have kids. I have kids who have tantrums & temper.”

Ever wonder how good kids are at throwing up a fit. I mean it comes so naturally. Like one minute they are the cutest little humans you’ve ever created and another moment you are just too tired to handle them. Hauling, falling, mess and screams… all these become facts of your life once you have a child. You’ll see them kicking, running away, screaming, crying, stiffening limbs or falling down.

Temper is commonly noticed among kids. But why is to so common?

Temper and tantrums are marked as development, that’s how kids convey about their feelings. But lack of language skill they are unable to express what they feel. This causes them to throw a tantrum or temper. Initially, they don’t gather much about their environment. It is only after 11 months that they start associating with the environment and start to interact. There is popular believe of “the terrible twos” some kids can start showing temper by the age of 12 months.

But what causes all this fuss..?

• Temperament –influences how quickly and strongly kids react to things that are frustrating. Children who give up or get upset easily are more likely to have tantrums.
• Stress, hunger and tiredness can make it harder for children to express and manage feelings and behavior.
• Situations that children just can’t cope with – for example: a toddler might have trouble coping with an older child.
• Strong emotions – worry, fear, shame and anger can be overwhelm for children.

Tantrums may happen when children are tired, hungry, or uncomfortable. They may even have a meltdown because they can’t get something they want. Tantrums are common when their language skills are developing because toddlers can’t yet say what they want to. As language skills improve, tantrums do decline.

Luckily, just like any other natural disasters this problem too has precautions. But they are just precautions.

1. Give kids a lot of positive attention by rewarding them for their good deeds.
2. Allow kids to gain control over certain things. For example: ask your children if they want to eat instead of simply telling them.
3. Kids have short attention span so it can be used as an advantage. Distract them when you see them getting cranky.
4. Make them laugh.
5. Keep them well fed.
6. Give your kid comfort: sometime they just want to be held.

The above list is just some ways to prevent or delay the tantrum fits. But if the dreaded happens it is important to keep calm and avoid any kind of physical punishment. More over it is essential not to give in to their request because it will teach kids that they can get their demands fulfilled this way.

Tantrums are not a big concern as it stops once kids grow. As kids mature, they will learn self control and with developed language, conveying the feelings becomes easy. Once they are able to convey, the tantrums will be less.

No wonder parents are the most patient humans.