How do you keep calm?!

[Tinkjon]

How do you keep calm when your child is misbehaving all the time? I think I am making my DS's (4yo) behaviour worse because it's so constant that I get really, really wound up with her and end up shouting (often literally screaming) and having a tantrum almost as bad as hers! When my DH is annoyed with her I can often step back and see what's going wrong, but when I have her annoying me all day I can't detatch from it and end up getting horribly angry (I feel awful at how angry I get, I must terrify the poor kid). I know that keeping calm is the thing to do but I just can't seem to, however many pep talks I give myself - so how do you do it?!

I wish I knew the answer to this! I always seem to be in constant battle with my dd 7! Like you I know I'm having tantrums like she is but she drives me so mad!!
Will watch thread with interest!!

I@m dreadful for doing that too......ends up with me practically hyperventilating and whichever of the DS's it is (sometimes both ) in tears......

I'm getting better at controlling it now though - I do tend to know when I'm going to "blow" so instead of trying to challenge the behaviour I just walk out of the room and leave them/him to it for a few minutes until I've calmed down enough to go back in and try and sort it out properly.....I've found that giving myself a "timeout" before I say anything to them helps me deal with it better......doesn't work all the time - sometimes I accelerate to tantrum stage too quickly but it usually does.

Prozac

I take lots of mini breaks away from them - in the house! So if they're winding me up (they're 5 and 3) I'll say I'm going to make a coffee/do the washing up/tidy up something - something boring that they're not going to want to join in with, and if necessary I'll stick the telly on for them, just so I can go and make a coffee and sit for 5 minutes to have a breather. Then I can cope much better! I have the boys on my own on Sundays and take several breathers throughout the day and they're used to me going off to another room (and sometimes even carrying out one of the jobs I say I'm going to!) and they're fine playing.

My DD is only 8 months and she drives me bonkers like this sometimes. I shut her safely in the living room (in her playpen) and go and walk round the garden.

I try to keep the threats to throw her out the catflap and make her live in the garden to a minimum.

Mine are older now, but when they were at that tantrumy age I used to just leave them to get on with it.... I used to just retreat into my own head in a mediation type way. Oh and drink lots and lots of tea.

Vodka

oh I also tend to pop out into the garden for a cigarette on my 'timeouts' too

LOL Whoosh, but sadly that's not an option for me as I'm pg with No.2 (must be mad!) Keep saying to DH that I don't know how I'm supposed to do this without Chardonnay Fannyannie, hmmm, timeout for yourself - that's a thought. I might try that tomorrow. Thanks, everyone!