Dd went to bed a little angel and has woken up the devil incarnate

[Moomin]

Oh. My. God. I had no idea how awful the terrible 2s tantrums could be! Since last week, dd has taken to slapping and hitting me and dh; taking the stance of an ironing board when we try to get her in the carseat/pushchair; has lay down screaming in the garden centre and supermarket respectively and has screamed herself sick once. She's NOT ill. Between tantrums she's still lovely. Thank god she's still sleeping like a log!
How many tantrums per day are usual in your houses? And how long can we expect these hissyfits? (She's 20m)

If I counted how many I get a day, I'd go mad! I'm not sure I should say this, but DS1 still has "hissy fits" at 4. They do (IIRC) get better as their language and understanding improves though.

You have my sympathies. DS2 is a fully signed up member of the Terrible Twos.

Moomin,have too agree with SoupDragen,i would hate to count up how many tantrams ds2 has in a day, he is 23 m and it started at about 19 mths!
Ds1 who is 4.5yrs was an angel at this age, so it was such a shock when ds1 started having "wobblers".His favourite (after slapping hitting anyone nearby including himself) is head banging,very worrying until i was assured this can be very commen.!!!!!!
My sympathy is with you but i am sure things will improve,as SoupDragen mentions,for us all.
We can then sit back and wait for the argumentative stoppy 4's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

My ds is 22mths and has been practising for the terrible two-s since he was 20mths. It was sudden too!! On a bus he decided he wanted to run up and down the bus, something he has never wanted to do or tried to do in the past. For the full 20 minute journey he screamed, kicked, hit, growled and spent most of the time on the floor at my feet!! No kidding there were 60 people on the bus that I think would have happily killed him! We had another tantrum when we got home and another before bed and so it had begun. >sigh

It really is like an overnight transformation. Yesterday was terrible so I wasn't much looking forward to my day alone with her, with dh working til 8pm - lucky bugger. But she woke up really nicely this morning and was charm itself until we started to watch Teletubbies, which is her absolute favourite. When the animal parade came on she started shaking her head and shouting NO. When the first tiger appeared, well, that was IT! Full-blown paddy on the floor, crying until her heart broke and when I tried to comfort her she bit me!!! I turned the telly off, we sat for about a minute then turned it back on. The animals had gone by then and she started laughing. She's watched the animal parade about a thousand times on her video and on the website with no probs at all before. Despite the way she must be feeling during these tantrums, I do find it quite funny. I expect that will wear off after a little while..... BTW, thanks for your replies. Glad I'm not the only one!

Why do they always do it when your in a crowded place, tired or got a cup of tea in your hand!!!

I think that the sense when you are not able to control the situation to the best of your ability. I mean if at home Ds goes off on one, I ignore he, I make a point of climbing over him and leaving the room, this 99% of the time does the trick (no audience) but when he is in public he is in his element, although he is much better now that he used to, the occasional tantrum is still there.

I agree bouncy. I think my ds has ESP - the one place I want him to behave is at my MIL's, and that's the one place he always seems to become a nightmare!! Hence we hardly ever go there. He's nearly 3 and as soon as we get to her place (nothing is child-friendly and they don't like him to touch anything), he seems to go into 'hyper' mode - chases their little dogs, stomps his feet on the wooden floorboards, climbs on furniture etc etc. He was even pulling leaves off her pot plants the other day and he NEVER does that anywhere else. I was so frazzled when I left, I know I shouldn't care but I don't want her thinking he's a brat. She has an aversion to a couple of her other young grandchildren and I can just imagine her saying the same things about ds as she does about the others. Sigh... as my SIL says, he probably picks up on my discomfort and just goes for it....

My DD is 2.8months and she has terrible tantrums!! She now smacks me and tells me I am a naughty mummy if I take anything off her! Sometimes if she does not get enough attention by smacking me if she is in a full blown paddy then she will bite you. She did go through a period when she was biting other kids, once on a friday and then on the sunday. I tried to cajol the other child but she just wanted her mummy understanderbly.

I try to do time out. Last time she bit me I removed her from the living room and put her in her bedroom and left her to scream for 5 minutes and then went back to the bedroom. She seemed to be ok then. It is a very difficult one!