21 months and keep running away from me and throwing tantrums the whole time - it's exhausting!

[yipeeforthesun]

DS is 21 months and is a very active little boy. He can be really sweet coming over and giving me cuddles etc but he can also be sooooo demanding. At the moment he just seems to be hard work the whole time. He throw tantrums over everything, if I take something away from him, if i don't let him do something it ends is tears. He will dissolve into tears in seconds over something as stupid as me closing the door when he want it to be open! He has also taken to running off, I take him to play in the park nearly every day to give him fresh air and work off some energy but as soon as he is out of the pram, he is running at speed away from me. When he sees me chasing, he laughs and runs even faster! I'm pregnant with DC2 and am just getting so worn down and exhasuted by DS's behaviour at the moment. Everyone else's DC look so amenable and easy!!!

Hi Yipee. I'm feeling for you. My DD was just like this. I just wanted to cry all the time with frustration. THen I discovered 'Toddler Taming' by Chris Greene and it was/is brilliant.

Mainly it tells you how to use distraction techniques, the naughty step/room and how ignorning bad behaviour will help (and it does). I'm no expert by any means and all I can offer you really is my sympathy
and urge you to get this book.

You have my sympathy. DS would run rings around me when I was pregnant with baby no.2. He used to drive me mad and would jump up and run off when I was doing his nappy. Having a hefty bump meant I couldn't chase him very fast.

I got through it because I knew that once I had had the baby then mummy would be in charge again . Obviously life is more hectic with two but not having a bump means I'm faster than him again.

I'm with you! DD is 21 months old and this past couple of weeks her tantrums are getting worse. At the moment she throws herself on the floor screaming almost constantly! I'm 25 weeks pregnant too. DH is away working and I'm so exhausted. At the moment DD is having a tantrum about everything. As soon as she wakes (6 - 6.30am) after a brief sweet moment of kisses and cuddles she starts screaming and fighting against a nappy change, and then doesn't want to put on dressing gown/ slippers, doesn't want to walk, doesn't want to be carried, screams because I go to the loo! Doesn't want milk, so I offer her juice, more hysterical screaming, and on and on and on all day!
I try to keep talking to her calmly and cheerfully (think cbeebie presenter), keep singing anything to stay sane. It's so ridiculous it's hard to be annoyed by it really. She seems to be totally frustrated and I'm hoping as she can use more words to desribe what she wants it'll get better.
Sometimes I just leave her lying on floor/ sofa while I carry on whatever I'm doing (cleaning/ cooking etc) but she will just cry forever so I try to give her snacks and things to do, point out the cat in the garden/ airplane passing by, wind blowing the trees, tickles, silly faces etc, etc.. but the constant attention is exhausting.
At the very worst, when she's refusing to sit and eat/ throwing her food/ totally got her scream on etc I sometimes stand her outside of the room with the door ajar and tell her to come and join me when she's ready and she'll normally reappear after a minute or so and I just greet her enthusiastically and move on!
So basically constant distraction, talking through what we're going to do (let's eat breakfast, then we'll get dressed and go to the park etc..) and grinning and bearing it.
And just get out of the house as much as possible, make her walk a lot, chase a ball, physically exhaust her!
I do also give a stern face and shake my finger No and if she runs off then she'll go straight back into the pushchair at least for few minutes and then have a 2nd chance.
And it is horrible when you see the other kids are behaving nicely and you're trying to restrain a screaming banshee but I'm sure they all have their moments

snap mamamila! My ds is 21 months and sounds just like your dd. He's been like it forever though and has loads of words so I don'tknow if or when it'll get better!

He seems to have bags and bagsand bags of energy and very easily gets bored and frustrated. He throws tantrums over not being able to play with the stair gate if he's in one of those moods which is most day, all day!

It's so hard cos he hates being moved way from things and has never been able to tolerate having things taken off him.

He screams and flips about while I dress or change him. Cries if he can't reach something he wants. Cries when I shut the dishwasher cos he wants to play with it. It really is constant. Thank God I'm not pregnant that's all I can say!

You have my sympathies!

It's nice to hear I'm not alone in this problem!!! Some days it just feels that everyone's else's children are so easy and my DS is the only really naughty one! I meet friends in the park and their lo's play near them and then come back when they call them, where as my DS runs as fast as he can away and runs faster when I call him!! The tantrums are just so exhausting though, as you say screaming fits over EVERYTHING some days. DS will wake up and then go into a rage that I need to go to the bathroom when he wants to come straight downstairs, then be ok for seconds until something else annoys him and so the day continues!! totally exhausting! I'm about to buy the taming toddlers book 'Imoverhere' recommended...

Ive now got 2 girls doing this 3.5 and nearly 2 but i would put up with this any day then being pregnant with a toddler, its so exhausting!!! But you will get through it and stop worrying about what other parents think. My problem now is siblings constantly fighting!!
Defo stopping at two, i'm knackered.

I just ignore tantrums, always say NO if DD2 (20 months) is doing something wrong (like scratching DD1's DVDs) and stick with it. If she decides to throw herself on the floor, I walk away. I pandered to DD1 far too much and her tantrums were far worse.

So good to hear of other mums in the same situation. I'm 30 weeks pregnant with number 2 and DS1 (20 months) has just started having the most horrendous tantrums. Our big difficulty is that they almost all happen when DH tries to do something for DS. DS screams, 'No, mummy do it, mummy do it'. It's just so exhausting lugging a heavy toddler around the place, but the alternative is coping with a screaming fit, which is no less tiring. I keep clinging to the idea that it's just a phase, and that things will get a little easier when I start maternity leave in a few weeks' time. My mum helps out with DS a lot, so I should at least get some chance to rest while she's here. I wish I can some good solutions to the problem, but can only share sympathy, I'm afraid.