Who said anything about Terrible Twos? It should start at one. Obnoxious One.
Following up from our previous post on Separation Anxiety, Ignatius seems to be constantly clingy, and constantly throwing tantrums. Or we think they are tantrums.
Sometimes, he goes prostrate (literally) with anger and screams his head off when we remove something from his grasp or bring him away from somewhere/somthing.
Sometimes, he cries (really piteously) for no real reason at all.
And remember how we always thought they had an alarm button on their asses that rings when we put them down when we think they are alseep? It's turned on again.
We can't understand his distress, but we sure feel distressed ourselves. We can't tell if he's in pain, hungry, tired, frustrated, hot, cold...or simply exercising his will.
So do we discipline him?
As usual, we turn to surfing for information. Here's a really good website with wonderful links to What Is Discipline, What to Expect From Your Toddler at XX Age, What to Do and What Not To Do, etc. Here are a few highlights.
I expecially liked how they reinforced the message that Discipline means to teach. It doesn't mean corporal punishment, denial, restriction. It means love and respect and teaching.
So, we think we're not too extreme in our Teaching style. We practise "time-outs" and the explanation of the "No-no". And we hold him gently, but firmly, in our arms when he goes ballistic. We stroke his back gently to try and get him to calm down. We try to teach him to explain to us what he wants (like going out is "OUT", or carry is "BAO BAO", hungry is "MUM MUM") and that that will reap the best results.
Of course, it's easy to say that now that I'm several kilometres away from him, at work in a nice peaceful office. Ask me again when he's prostrate with anger and screaming the house down, and refuses to let anyone carry him but me, and refuses to fall asleep in anything but my arms.
