Struggling with my three-year-old repeating phrases and pushing me to snapping

[howdoinot]

My three year old has this tendency to repeat the same phrase over and over, working herself up into a complete state with it irrespective of what my reaction is. So for instance if she wants a drink she’ll just keep repeating I want a drink, I want a drink, and will just keep saying it over and over getting increasingly loud and desperate and frantic until I give her a drink.

The problem is that I really struggle with it and eventually it makes me snap and then I lose it, roaring and screaming at her and saying things I don’t mean. We just had it in the car on the way back from somewhere. She dropped something and started screaming for it and I couldn’t do anything about it and twenty minutes on she was still at it and I just broke.

I tried Loop earplugs and they did nothing. It’s awful and it doesn’t happen a lot but I end up feeling terrible and she’s upset and it’s just horrible.

"Hmm yep, you want a drink darling, I know. When we get home, we can get a drink."
"I want a drink"
"That's right, I'm driving home right now, so that we can get to the drinks. We are on the Coventry road. We will take the next right to go towards home."
"I want a drink when we get home"
"Yep, as soon as we get home we can get one. I'm turning right now. Just checking if any cars are coming - safe to go. Now we have to go up this road, round the roundabout, past the shops..."
Even if they didn't actually move on from the same sentence, it helped because it felt less like an endless loop and I was sort of narrating the progress that I was making towards the goal. Maybe on some level it helped them understand that I was actually working towards it as well.

Yes, I've learnt to do the same with my 2 year old dgd. Otherwise I think they start to manic if they think you've not understood. Endless (boring) chat to reassure her I'm on the case and deciding not to get angry or upset myself ( or at least not showing it 'yes I'm thirsty too, as soon as we get home, we'll be home in 5 mins etc etc) even just repeating endlessly while smiling seems to work. ( Even though I feel like I'm going mad!).

@ElizaMulvil i have to admit I’m getting a little bit frustrated repeating myself on this thread, it’s so unhelpful when I have to keep doing this.

If people do not read the whole thread and see that there has already been a response to the same/very similar advice they have given, then I think it's OK to ignore that reply.

Fair enough @BertieBotts it’s true I shouldn’t get sucked into it but it’s so frustrating, as if people think you’re a complete idiot!