My three-year-old cries and dramatises so much ...

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Can I do anything about it or is it just her character?

She's 3, very bright and verbal, incredibly so in fact, but she's got zero patience and what she has in verbal skills she's so lacking in others. She's never once managed to put two pieces of a jigsaw together, if it doesn't work after a few attempts she gets hysterical and throws the pieces around the room. She cries and cries. I do the old 'naughty step' stuff but she just sobs as though the world's ending and will say sorry over and over and pick up all the pieces when I ask her to but still doesn't stop sobbing. She's dramatic about everything, if her fingernail breaks she turns to me with full wobbling lip and says 'mummy ... look ...' lifts the finger and bursts into tears, again inconsolably.

How do I deal with this? I remember kids at school being labelled 'cry babies' and I hate to think it but I think I've got one. I don't think I've particularly encouraged it in her as dp and I are both quite shy and reserved, certainly not demonstrative in the way she is and she's actually quite brave about all kinds of surprising things.

She's wonderfully polite and generally cooperative, she just can't seem to control her disappointment / sense of failure.

Any one else have something similar?

LOL Orinoco. How old's your dd1? Does she also do full on ridiculous drama?

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Orinoco! Hello!! As you can imagine my dd (a younger mirror image of yours) also states her age - She's "fwee and leven mumfs" (as she pronounces it )

Can't say it gets any better as they get older. My dd is 10 and goes through life as if it is a rehearsal for some great play. When she was little she told me "I like crying" and now she has drama lessons (big mistake) and can adapt the emotions to any situation. May be typical middle child behaviour?

Maybe sherbert, but my dramatic intense little dd is my only one ...

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Are all these drama kings and queens products of dramatic mothers/and or fathers, perchance?

I have 2,(drama q and drama k) and have to admit that yep, I am the originator of their dramatic tendencies!

Don't know the solution though - but empathy helps I think.

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Hi unicorn! I've been thinking of you as my dd's bedtime routine gets increasingly obsessive and baroque!

unicorn, I don't know about that. Dp is just about the most reserved man I can imagine, totally undemonstrative. I think I probably am rather 'dramatic' but in a much quieter way. Usually me and dp find ourselves looking at dd and saying 'where does all this come from?' She was dramatic even as a tiny baby, either brilliantly smiling and happy and engaging or crying furiously over something tiny.

One thing I am finding very helpful is if I maintain a sense of humour (when I'm not at the limits of patience that is! ). Sometimes if I do an over-the-top impersonation of how she's behaving she will collapse into giggles and even then be able to impersonate herself being overly dramatic.

Sorry, I meant to begin that 'hi orinoco' as unicorn has no idea of our long discussion previously about our girls and their mad bedtime routines.

This thread is soooo funny! My ds (3 1/4) is so picky about everything - ie right bowl, spoon, placemat right way round. Has started getting really angry about if things don't go his own way, Hits out and shouts REALLY loud.

Also know what you mean about big dramas over small things and not even noticing big accidents. He fell over on the way to the park once and didn't really react until half an hour later when he saw the blood and we had to go home and he was so stressed about dd coming near him he went to bed and slept for an hour!!