21 month old whingeing/crying/hitting all the time.....

[queenrollo]

my normally delightful ds has turned into a terrible whinger....and has become very adept at fake crying, it sounds very close to the real thing. he just does it all afternoon, and when i refuse to pay attention to it he starts hair pulling, hitting and kicking.

i have no idea why he's doing it......he doesn't want to play with any of his toys, or watch telly he just seems to find this behaviour entertaining......and he is even worse with dp.

give me some advice please on how to deal with this....or tell me it's a phase he'll grow out of.

he's driving me up the wall!!

He WILL grow out of it, honestly! This is the beginning of the terrible twos by the sound of it, so it may go on for a year (I know, I know) or so, but it's a phase.
He may be feeling a bit emotional, as his understanding and emotions are changing very quickly. I found sitting down and doing really quiet stuff together, like jigsaws and books, really helped. Good luck!

queenrollo do you think he might just be a bit bored? Sounds like attention seeking to me. I have a 21 month old dd and 3.3 year old ds. They both go to nursery 3 days a week when I work and dd has just moved up from the baby rooms to the main nursery. Lately when I went to pick her up she'd be lying around sucking her thumb but now she's moved up with the older children she is happily playing and doing stuff when I get there and she is like a different child when she gets home. When she's at home with her brother on my 'days off' she's also fine but if she's just home with me (this is rare but when she's ill does happen) she's a pain! They are both very well behaved as long as we are out of the house too, which is why I am out all the time.......

i do think boredom may be an element.....some of our usual weekly activites have been cancelled for several weeks running, and so he's not getting the group activities he's used to......also having daddy around more, because he's become very attached to him (hysterical tears when he does leave the house, or even is in the bath!), he really fights his afternoon nap if his dad is here. i've had to tell daddy to stop running to him every time he whimpers because he is reinforcing the behaviour, and it's making a difference.

it's quite hard to keep him occupied on rainy days because he just doesn't do sitting still......in fact there are very few activities that hold his attention for more than a few minutes......

Hi
I agree with the others - ds is definitely worse when bored! It's so hard to keep them occupied though isn't it - especially on rainy days like every day at the moment!