Why does the sound of whinging and crying drive me potty?

[butterflyexperience]

Aaarrhhh!

I can't stand it!
As soon as I hear it I want to shout back 'SHUT UP! I DONT BLOODY CARE!'

Truth be told today I did
They are 3 and 18 months

Coping strategies anyone?

walk away
deep breaths
count to 10
repeat to self 'i am the adult, i am the adult)
when all else fails
put them somewhere safe, run away, shut the door and scream, then return when you feel a bit more under control

i totally sympathise, my dd (2.7) drives me up the wall some days - can't blame DS yet as only 6 months but i'm sure the combination of the two will drive me demented next year

If I walk away they follow and they get louder...
It's like something in my brain just snaps and I can't take it anymore

It is so annoying, isn't it! Guaranteed to drive you mad. Depending on how irriated I am, I use either the 'How to Talk...' tactic:

'DD, you won't get anything when you are whining like this. If you ask in a polite way, I will consider it'

Or else '1,2,3 magic' style:

'OK, that's enough, DD, if you carry on whinging you will lose a privilege' 'That's one.' etc. I'd usually remove TV or biscuit privileges on 3.

Mind you, your 18mo will be too little to understand, so, er....

Even the 123 got ignored yesterday
I normally say please use a nice voice to talk to me but yesterday but I just lost it instead
Time to walk away and count to 10

I have to admit it drives me nuts as well - on good days, I use the "If you whine like that, you won't get what you want. If you ask nicely, I will give you (x)/ let you do (x)"
On bad days, I say "Have you turned into a goat, DD? All I can hear is a goat going 'meeh!'" She normally laughs and wanders around saying "Meeh! Meeh!" after that, so it perversely works better than the 'approved' version..

It drives me up the wall too.

If I don't think I can trust myself to speak I burst into song to drown it out.

"use your words if you want something"

and also big cuddles even though i really dont feel like it.
i feel for you DS1 used to be such a whinger but soon before he turned 3, he stopped! Now he just lay on the floor refusing to do anything. much more bearable from my point of view!