Any advice or sympathy about the dreaded Threenager stage?

[yousaidit]

My dd (dc1) is a total bloody right royal PITA at the moment!

In about the past week we have lost our cheeky-little-sunshiney-sometimes-stroppy-but-naughty-step-sorted-little-girl and we have now got a wailing shouting screaming contrarytantruming grizzler on our hands!

Why? From whence it came? And when will this monster bring back my little cherub like (in hindsight, with comparison to this week!) little girl?

aaaaarrrrrrgggghh!
After a horendous day of trying to pick my battles and not tell her off all the time, find her eating moisturiser (??), spells on the naughty step, screaming and arguing with us and herself (i don't want new shoes i do want new n=shoes no i don't i do want new shoes etc etc etc) i have put her to bed, read her a story, told her i love her very much and lets hope these angry tantrums go away because she is such a happy litle girl and these tantrums can h=make her sad, and she might be growing and isn't growing up hard work etc etc (do you get the picture?) i have come downstairs exhausted!!
Please tell me this passes and only lasts about 2 weeks? Please?

Cold comfort but I think it means your dd is rather intelligent.

Huge sympathies from here, DD was hideous but getting back to 'normal' now. Like the fact that it is a sign of intelligence. I don't think it helped that she was a late talker so very frustrating for her and us.

Been going through this with previously angelic DS and have no advice except to build yourself a bunker and lock yourself in it with plenty of chocolate. It's bloody hard going.

My DS is 3.8 years and there appears to be no end to his tantrums. I'm hoping 4 will be better, although we've got it all to come again with DS2.

No advice to impart, we're just muddling through ourselves.

alcohol helps - for you, and if you makes you feel better my threenage has been having these since she was born.....

Spudmasher I like your post, thank you! that will make the first five minutes of tomorrow bearable!

OhExpletive, yes a bunker would be fab, poor ds (20m) would be in it like a shot with us! llareggub, come to mine and ohexpletive's bunker if you like...

Hotbot, wine is cracked already!!!!

You lot think yourselves lucky, I'm pregnant so a) can't drown my sorrows in a nice bottle of red, b) can't begin to imagine how the hell I'm going to manage a newborn AND this hellchild and c) can't quite believe we'll have to go through it all over again with another.

[totally feckin' terrified]

Dd was 23m when i had ds, she was miildly stroppy when i had ds but not too bad, and we tried to involve her with ds all time by asking her to do 'big jobs' for us (had changing bag on floor so she could get a nappy put when changing ds etc lots of praise and thannk yous and trying not to mis manage attention bewteen the two dc's. worked a treat buut now obviously she's got bored of it all and subscribed to the threenager school of behaviour!

Good luck OhExpletive: will dp be doing lots of pram pushing or toddler days out?

Oh I have great sympathies for you, I am in the same stage, we had the terrible 2s later on, thought that once she turned 3 a magic switch would flick and dd would turn into the lovely, happy, listening, obliging conforming child. Instead most of the time its like a tantruming, contradicting, wilful 3 year old. When will it end.

Same here too - DD has just turned 3 and has been a late bloomer to the terrible 2's. Also sunny, happy, helpful little thing previously and now sooo embarrassing in public - totally willful, refuses to walk, hold my hand, shouts 'you're stupid' at me often and loudly!

I'm becoming frightened of her I really am

LOL at minty - i was similarly pretty scared of my own little grenade of a 3 yr old at that stage!! she totally dominated our family life and put the terrible twos in the shade. i still now look back on that year as the most challenging, without doubt, of my entire life. she erupted every few minutes. the day would begin at half 6 with a tantrum over the way i'd poured her cornflakes into her bowl ('that's the wrong SHAPE, mummy! )
it was hideous. for some considerable time. she just hated being 3, basically!! hated the frustration of it all! can reassure you that she is loads better at, er, 9(!!) It all gradually improved the older she got and the more stimulation and structure her day held as pre-school hours extended, then school began. her learning to read was our saviour - we had a means of helping her to calm down then, and she is still a bookworm now. and yes she is bright, though no genius - but i do think that made it worse. probably. who knows. GOOD LUCK. i found 'raising your spirited child' the only book that helped! X

OhExpletive I hear you - 5mths pg here and have a 3.4yo DS. GOD it is hard work!!

The constant mind-changing and, as meerkate says, randomly throwing a wobbly over some minor thing (DS's latest is if he is eating, say, a banana and it breaks in half, he goes BALLISTIC!!) is the worst. Sympathy all round I say.