Miserable toddler

[MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy]

Uffff. I feel like 80% of the time my toddler is just miserable 😩
Most mornings he wakes up and starts within minutes. It can be anything from me just asking him if he needs the potty, or if I don't walk down the stairs the way he wants me to, to having a screaming fit because he wants biscuits instead of weetabix for breakfast.
This morning, I took him with me to get the click and collect grocery shop, once we got back I carried him into the house as he'd got no shoes on. Good lord! I bet the neighbours thought I was battering him the way he kicked off over something so small (because he couldn't walk from the car to house)
Every weekend we try and do something nice with him but it always ends up in tears with him having a paddy on the floor over something small and ridiculous that we end up leaving early and then sighing with relief once we're back in the car and going home.

Does anyone else have these miserable toddlers? How do you deal with it. Really gets me down sometimes ☹️

That sounds hard. How old is he @MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy?

Just over 2 and a half. I know there's the "terrible two" cliche but people tell me to brace myself for the 3's, 4's, even terrible bloody 5's 🤣🤣

🙏

I absolutely love him more than anything in the world though even if he is hard work

Does he go to any kind of Childcare yet? If he does, have they said anything about his demeanour?

I started him in nursery beginning of Jan, they've not said anything to me yet 😬

I think a lot of it can be normal and it can just be their personality, that doesn't mean it's not hard though

I'd try and keep things quite this weekend to see if he's any better. When you say that you try and do a nice thing each weekend, what sort of things are you doing?

Another thing to try is a book like Little Angels by Dr Tanya Byron which is sadly out of print but available through Abebooks here or 123 Magic.

Do you do the pjs trick of giving him choices sometimes, but choices of two things that you are happy for him to have? So would you like the red cup or the blue cup? Would you like an apple or a banana? I wouldn't offer a choice with everything but some choices will help him feel a bit more in control.

It might just be worth checking his speech by using this quick progress checker. At 2.5 our DD's speech wasn't where it should have been and it did cause some outbursts from her.

@CadyEastman thank you for taking the time to come back with some helpful tips. I don't think I tend to offer alternatives most the time and that probably sparks his frustrations with me.
He also has his first speech and language therapy session next week as we think the communication struggles is also an issue and again probably explains a lot of his behavioural/frustration issues.

I'll look into that book! Thank you 😊 x