Tag: tantrum

Caroline Drama

Caroline has been a handful tonight.

After sloppy joes tonight (try this recipe- http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/sloppy-joes/)
Lynn had to leave to go to a Farm Bureau meeting. Claire was leisurely finishing her dinner and Caroline was running, turning flips on the floor, and trying to take the drawer pulls off the the antique buffet.

I called her over to me, and while petting her hair I asked her “Why are you so wild? What’s got into you?”

She rolled her eyes around in circles. Sigh. “Mama, that’s just the world we live in today”

Finally Claire was finished and I tried to take a quick bath while supervising the girls who were sprinting up and down the hall yelling at the top of their lungs.

Caroline stopped. Came and stood in front of the bathtub and tossed her hair. “I need your computer now” (by computer she means tablet)

I said “No.”

Lord have mercy.

The kid has been using a sight word app on my tablet to work on her sight words. She’s recently decided she wants to read.

Kicking, screaming, wailing, sniveling, I asked her to go to her room until she could quit the fit.

Finally, she came back to find me. Mad because I did not let her play her sight word game.

“If you don’t give the the computer right now I’m never going to be able to read. Not even when I’m a grown-up. I WON’T EVEN BE ABLE TO READ TO MY OWN CHILDREN! WHY ARE YOU BEING MEAN TO MY CHILDREN????” (Hair toss, foot stomp)

To my credit, I was able to hold it together and not laugh. This ratbaby is a strong willed dramatic thing!

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Grumpy grouch

Poor Lynn got back home in the middle of the drama and settled down his oldest daughter.

Y’all pray for me!

Gee. Teenage years should be fun.

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The whining tree

So – my Caroline has random freak-outs.Think if you are being held hostage, except instead of a gun the bad guy is screaming, kicking, growling and gnashing while making unreasonable demands..but you can’t just “walk away from it”..and that’s pretty much it.

She can scream and fake cry for literally hours, until one of the following happens

A. She gets her way (I don’t want to encourage this rottenness so I make my best attempt to never let this happen.)

B. She gets distracted (very rare)

C. She decides she is finished.

I don’t know what to do. Punishment, bribes, and removing privileges don’t work. Neither does hugs and snuggles.

Typically she is demanding that Lynn return home from work. So…I can’t make that trigger stop because farmers gotta farm.

Sometimes, she throws fits over say ” I want ice cream”.

The only strategy I know to do is send her to a cool down spot to give what shreds of sanity I have left a break, and to let her mellow and decide she wants to stop.

Unfortunately I can’t handle angry screaming right next to me for long-drawn-out-amounts of time. It makes my heart rate fly up, my head pound and my patience die a painful death.

Enter: The Whining Tree.
It’s a part of the fenced in backyard that she is banished to where she can scream to her hearts content. (Sorry neighbors) She can climb it, dig in the dirt, throw sticks or kick the tree. Whatever. Just stay there until you finish, and quit screaming before you rejoin the family activities.

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Caroline celebrating Mothers Day with a robust temper tantrum.

I am doing my best – and right now, this is the best idea I’ve got. If you have a better idea, I am all ears.

Obviously I don’t send her there in bad weather or after dark, or while I’m not monitoring her… but since it’s 75 and sunny with a light breeze today…well…you have to make use of your resources.

I love my sensitive, high strung, intelligent and Sweet Caroline. I don’t really like screaming though.

Have a wonderful Sunday friends.

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