My DS is 3.5 years old. He’s always been a child who shows his feelings freely, he cried a lot as a baby when hungry etc, on the flip side he also smiled and laughed a lot. He’s still like this now and has a lovely side which is loving, kind and funny.
He is SUCH hard work at the moment. He was awful age 2.5-3, then it felt like he got slightly better at 3, fewer tantrums. However since 3.5 this has upped again and he’s demanding and cheeky with it too.
When something annoys him, and it could be anything, a slight from his older sibling, or just not wanting to do something, he has a tantrum, screams, shouts, hits/kicks us/sibling. We talk about feelings a lot, and he is good at telling us about this - will shout “I am
angry/leave me alone” etc. So I don’t think it’s a communication problem, he just has such a temper at any little thing.
He moves on from tantrums quite quickly too. Until the next one. Leaving fun places is a big problem, and he also seems to be a typical bottle of pop on his nursery days. He is always fine in nursery, but can have a huge tantrum minutes after leaving.
I just don’t know what to do in the moment with these tantrums. I really want to let him feel his feelings, acknowledging whilst not giving in, but he makes it so hard especially as it’s often over something tiny (like where he is sat at the dinner table). Time outs haven’t worked unless we shut him in another room, which we have done but he just screams and screams. I feel sorry for my neighbours!