2 yr old wigging out - help!!!

[Lovecat]

This morning my dd has woken up as the horrorbag from hell... OH is away on business, left at stupid o'clock this morning, she asked for him but is used to him being away so I don't think it's that...

Anyway, breakfast, she decided to throw everything (and I mean everything)on the floor without warning - normally there's a build up and I can distract her, but this was out of the blue. She refused to help clear it up, refused to say sorry (which is ia first) and continued to throw things on the floor as I was picking them up (grr).

I put her in her cot for a 2 minute timeout, which has always worked in the past, she was v. apologetic and cuddly, we went downstairs and ate breakfast together. Then, looking at me, she threw her knife on the floor. I asked her not to throw things, said if she threw anything else she would go back upstairs, did she want that, she said no, then chucked an entire plate of egg on toast on the floor. Given that I cleaned the entire floor yesterday and it was spotless, I wasn't best pleased, but as she wasn't to know this I restrained myself from screaming at her and put her back upstairs again. Am typing this at a rate of knots.

Any ideas?????? (off to retrieve dd now...)

She testing you. As hard as it is try to stay calm maybe a run in the park might help things. My DS 2.8 Refuses to appoligise, we go through the same thing over and over, do you want to time out. He now just says whatever he thinks I will say as punishment before I can. ie he will throw somthing then say I'm going to bed/ sit in the pushchar/have no treats ect aaahhhhhhhh avoidence is the best thing though how can you avoid breakfast? hope your day gets better.

don't get drawn into thinking you have to be dealing with all this. If she's throwing stuff, then she's not hungry. Take all the food and cutlery away and immediately get her on to other stuff; engaging with her about having an apology is simply turning into a game for her today, isn't it! Just forget it, move on and get on to another activity that she can enjoy.

Some days they do seem to have the wind up their tails - be flexible, give her a breadstick or fruit or something if she won't sit nicely and eat this morning. And keep trying distraction onto other more fun things, rather than feeling you have to discipline every misdemeanour and get an apology.

Maybe today is a good day to spend lots of time out of the house?!

ooh, she's trying to push your buttons! Best not to rise to it. My DD (2) tries that. I do a lot of ignoring, but the stuff I can't ignore i calmly tell her its naughty and if she doesn't stop she'll go to her room. If (when) she carries on I only have to pick her up, she immediately apologises.

As long as you don't let it get to you, she can't win. And I truely believe its a battle of wills. God knows why they do it, but do try to stay calm. Its really hard at the end of the day. Deep breath ... count to 10 ...

Thank you!

Well, it served me right, when I went back to pick her up (a matter of 1 minute), she'd taken her pants off and pooed and weed all over the bed! Normally she's v. good at telling me when she needs the toilet, but obviously was far too annoyed with me to do so....

Couldn't help but burst out laughing at my complete failure in the Supernanny stakes....

I cleaned her up, we ran round the garden for 1/2 hour, went to Waitrose for 1 item so she could push the mini trolley around the entire store, had coffee while she ran around with another little girl in the cafe, she refused a bite of biscuit (it was a very worthy biscuit, to be fair) so you're right, she's just not in a hungry mood (typical, I made a shedload of Annabel Karmel organic burgers last night and we were due to have some of them for lunch with sweet potato chips - how lentil-weavery am I???). She's now perfectly happy but we are strapping on wet-weather gear and heading for the park thisaffo (the planned making of alphabet biscuits and throwing icing around the kitchen has been postponed indefinitely...)

Thanks once again for the reassurance and advice. Little moos, aren't they, at this age?

sorry Lovecat, but pmsl!

sounds like you're having a good day after all.

lovecat, sounds like you're making a lovely day out of what could have been endless confrontation. What a lovely mum you sound (if a little lentil-weavery)

Thanks, sunnyside, I don't think I'm a wonderful mother at all, in fact most days I feel like I'm drowning not waving...

It was raining really heavily so we spent the afternoon making an assault course around the living room, chucking water about the kitchen (I'll get that floor clean by hook or by crook...) and dancing wildly to her tumbletots cd.

She's now worn out (as am I!) in bed, fast asleep, having eaten the sum total of (all organic - do I get extra points for that??):

1 mouthful of bran flakes
1/3 an egg on toast
2 pieces of bread & butter
1 kiwi fruit
1 banana
1 miniscule bite of aforementioned burger/chips before rejecting it out of hand
approx 1 tsp broccoli/pea puree in place of ketchup
1 glass milk

So not a hungry day... but an energetic one.

If she does this to me again tomorrow I'm not sure I'm going to have the energy to cope!