Hi everyone,
just looking for some advice on how best to tackle/react to tantrums. I didn’t have the best example in terms of my parents growing up and no one to really ask. DC is always described as ‘busy’ and ‘knowing his own mind’, which I truly love these qualities but obviously through lack of communication, understanding etc we’re entering a tantrummy stage when he can’t do what he wants. Just off the top of my head some examples would be at toddler groups he wants to take other children’s toys/food/drink etc so each time I would try and distract or guide away and say x is playing with that.. for food, guide his hands away and say if you’re hungry we’ve got xyz, same for drink but 9 times out of 10 before I can get him away he’ll throw himself on the floor and start crying/screaming. So because of this I offer him/have a snack he can easily access at the beginning, again his drinks there for him at any point so it’s more that he just fancies someone else’s. He also tends to throw toys and throw toys behind him as well, I say no throwing and for eg if it’s a brick I’d start building a block and talking about it excitedly but he just ignores and continues throwing so I do tend to remove him as he’ll be very close to hitting others with stuff but again it’s full blown scream/crying, which I know is because I’m removing him from something that he is enjoying but I don’t know what else to do if he’s not listening and the potential to hurt others with what he’s throwing. Likewise in the classes if singing songs with actions, I find it difficult to get him to interact/participate as he’s off playing his own games, which I don’t necessarily mind but it’s just way more wandering than the others there.. I think I know most of what he does is normal for his age so I guess I’m asking the best tactics to go about it as his reactions are quite strong and his understanding/communication isn’t at a point where I can help him understand and to be really honest it gets a bit embarrassing (because it makes me feel like a complete failure rather than embarrassed by DC) when it’s always us in classes etc