Defiant 2 year old, please help!!

[Littlemiss82]

My DD is 2.3 and generally a well behaved little girl, who follows instructions and does as she’s told most of the time. She is a very independent little girl and loves to try and do things herself.

However…. The last week has been a nightmare! She won’t do what we ask, if we ask her to follow us when we’re out she stands in the spot and if we try and pick her up to lover her on there’s a tantrum, if she can’t get what she wants, there’s a tantrum and tears, suddenly hates getting dressed, flat out refuses to share with her older brother and is going as far as to take whatever he has off him. If she gets told no or she gets told off for something, she just goes ahead and does it anyway.

My DH and I are round the twist this weekend. Anyone been through this? Or any one have any tips or advice?

Feel like I’m going to be rocking in the corner soon 😂

Anyone offer any advice?

First I would try to work out if something has changed - check for change in routine - then check practicals - is she hungry, thirsty, tired? Dropping a nap?

She could be trying to learn something new.

Ha ha we have this too, they don’t call it the terrible twos for nothing! It has improved vastly for us, just by staying calm and riding out the tantrums they have almost disappeared except if she is exhausted at the end of the day we sometimes have one. I’m not certain if it was how we dealt with them or we have just gotten lucky but it’s unusual to have one now.Honestly, I think it is part and parcel with two year olds at some point.

This is all of age 2 and half of age 3 in my experience. Patience, good humour and turn things into a game if you can. I recommend the playful parenting book. And time away from parenting so you get some head space and rest so you can stay calm. Getting dressed I give them choices about eg which top and which leggings and just let them do it if they don't want help. If they want to put their top on backwards and inside out crack on its an easy fix when they're in a chilled out mood later. If she won't follow you I would say we will wait here for you and then in a minute when you decide we will carry on and go that way and talk about what exciting thing is happening that way. My dc would crack in about 20 seconds at 2 but still feel like they had shown me they make their own choices in life!

Sounds pretty typical for the age. I would say:-— - - pick your battles, let her have choices where possible,
-ignore tantrums,
-distract, distract, distract.

Good luck