Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Tantrums

While Ace is mostly a happy baby, he is starting to throw tantrums when he does not get things that he wants.

Initially, I was a little worried as Richie Ah Ye said that Ace seems to show some traits of becoming a spoilt brat cos he will try to cry and use emotional blackmail to get his way even though he is so young.

And then I read the internet and found out that it is quite normal for children this age to throw some tantrums because they:
- are starting to have minds of their own
- but cannot express what they want
- and are forced to LISTEN to bigger, stronger adults and do what THEY want
- yet, they are unable to express their frustration except in a tantrum

But Ace only throws and tantrum if you do not give him something that he wants. Usually it involves only two things:
- he wants food but you dun give him
- he wants to be outside of the playpen but you leave him inside

The thing is, you know that these tantrums are sometimes fake incident where he tries to get your pity. They will come with the real tears and all that but if you ignore them, he will stop in a while. After trying again and again to get his way with a tantrum, he can nail down exactly who he can use the tantrum on and who he cannot.

Laoma is the one who kenna most.So poor Waipo and Waigong always kenna cos me, Daddy and Ah Yee dun give in that much. Cos he always tries to get Laoma to carry him and once she does, he will wriggle out of her arms.. so she is his best bet to get out of the playpen..

It is interesting to observe Ace in a tantrum and if you observe him long enough, you will find that there are steps to it.

1) Purse his lips up into an M shape and start making irritating sounds like crying.. if that does not work..

2) starts having real tears flowing down the eyes... and if no one cares.. he will cough a little.. if you give him an amused look... he will

3) pulls on the edge of the playpen while standing up and arch his whole body backwards while shaking his head and crying.... and if everyone just stares at him..

4) throw his whole body backwards. Well, he rarely does that now. He did it once and banged his head on the playpen floor..and I guess it hurt. So the next time he tried this stunt, he made sure he sat down properly and leaned backwards in a slowmo so that he will not hurt his head again.

Anyway, there is no tantrum that cannot end if you would PASS HIM A PIECE OF FOOD.

It can be a piece of bread, a raisin.. he would happily stop in his tracks to munch on the food.. only to start all over if he is not satisfied with what he is given.

If food does not solve the problem, then it means that the little one is cranky due to a lack of rest.. you just need to put him to bed and when he wakes up from his nap, he will be as good as new! ;)


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3 comments:

Choonbee said...

Ace's getting more intelligent.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

haha.. ace knows that daddy and mummy will listen to him if he cries!!!!!!! :P :P :P