Toddler outings gone wrong anybody?

[leah1991]

Hey everyone. I just want to know for my peace of mind, has anyone else taken their toddler or toddlers out for a lovely day out and then they non stop shout and nothing you do can calm them then you just have to go home? Just before lockdown me and hubby took 2 yo daughter to the zoo, we let her out the pushchair so she could look about. I can't remember what point but she stated having a tantrum and she was holding the pushchair, her hands felt a little cold. So we think she must be tired and cold, so we'll put her back in the pushchair, changed her gloves as other ones were damp and offers her a drink as she had walked quite a way. Well that was the WRONG move! From that moment it was non stop shouting, so we let her out the pushchair again, nope, wrong move again. We offered her snacks, wrong move, got angrily thrown on the floor. Did she want a ride on daddy's shoulders, no. A cuddle, no. Was she still cold, definately not, if anything too warm now from working herself up too much. Would she let us cool her down a little, no. Did her pull up need changing? I checked and no it was fine. So we took her to the playground there and still she was miserable and shouted. Nothing anyone did that day could of made her happy. Not even mary Poppins or supernanny. Also with her language not developed properly it was even harder to establish what was wrong. We ended up having to go home. Funny thing was as soon as we got back in the car she immediately calmed down and proceeded to eat and have a drink. The whole experience was mentally draining and we were exhausted, was only at the zoo 2 hours, which an hour and a half were spent trying to make her happy. We were quite upset as it was the last chance for a day out before lockdown and if was so wasted 😩

I can see why this is incredibly frustrating and I'm sorry your outing went this way but I don't think you're describing anything unusual. They're still babies really at this age and it's easy for something like this to be a bit overwhelming. Remember as well that she has no real concept of this being 'special' so don't take it personally. All you can do is preempt their needs and do your best to meet them which it sounds like you did really well. I've found with my own that I simply HAVE to plan outings around when she normally gets tired and grumpy. So we either have to be there in the morning in time to more or less finish in time to have a nap at lunchtime or try and have an early nap and not arrive until after this. She would otherwise be too tired to function but too overstimulated to sleep. She's almost 3 and I would still do this tbh. It gets easier though as they get older I promise. You might well find that come spring/summer when we can hopefully go out again she'll be much different. I hear your dissappointment but don't think on it too much xx

PS just for balance.I can remember having a bit of a tiff with my husband when we'd gone away just before lockdown. We were heading to the zoo at about mid morning time. She was looking like she might go to sleep shortly before we arrived and I told him just to keep driving and try and get her to sleep as per above but he didn't listen and then by an hour in at the zoo she was knackered and grumpy but wouldn't go to sleep as I told him she would be .... mummy knows best

Thank you for your kind replies. I'm looking forward to the summer. I can't wait to get out properly again.