DD is 2yrs 9mo.
Lately her favourite thing seems to be crying, wailing for what seems no reason at all. Like she's just using the wailing to get my attention. Eg. Makes up "my eye/leg/arm is hurt and I need a plaster...".
I try to keep my cool for as long as possible and try to help her figure out her emotions blah blah but when the crying lasts for extended periods I just lose my shit and then feel really guilty. I get to the point when I feel like I've tried everything to cheer her up so I figure, stuff it, I'll just get cross and see if that works (yep totally irrational!!). Awful. I'm not an angry type in 'real life'. This is while my 5yo witnesses the whole thing. I'm not proud of being a bad role model :(
Do I just leave my 2yo while she cries? I've tried and I can't seem to leave her too long because then when I return to her she's done something naughty (a few evenings back she decided to distribute her water all over her cot, another time she took off nappy and there was pee on the floor).
She clearly wants attention and my god I try to give it to both my kids as much as I can but even that doesn't seem enough for her and I'm lost how to teach her to stop this behaviour.
Any tips or techniques would be much appreciated as there's more wailing than happy times at the moment.