DS just turned 18 months and has always been a VERY happy baby. Very lovey even while being very independent.That's not to say he's been an "easy" baby... He's certainly always had a mind of his own...which is a GREAT thing!...but until these past two weeks he's never thrown any tantrums.
Somehow I thought that by raising him as AP and naturally as possible...i.e. treating him like an individual from birth with respect and love, that we would skip this "stage". I am at a complete loss as to how I should be handling his tantrums or what even is the CAUSE of most of them. We have never used any form of discipline, and I'm not even sure if I SHOULD be stopping these tantrums.
Basically, ds will fly off the handle at the merest drop of the spoon...I come too near him when he's exploring something, I tell him we need to go home now, I sweep the floor ect... basically I have zero idea what's causing them. He'll dance around like he's doing a jig screaming at the top of his lungs, fall on the floor and wallow around for a while screaming and crying. I can't touch him during these fits because it makes him angrier, so for the most part I wait them out when I'm not in a public area. When I am in a store or something, I pick him up while he does the floppy bone thing meaning I have to juggle him from arm to arm or risk dropping him and take him out of the store. In a few minutes he'll be my cheerful little boy again as though nothing happened. There's no hitting of me or my husband, and nothing I would think of as anger at US...but there certainly seems to be a lot of angst at SOMETHING.
Is this normal? How do you respond to tantrums from a non-disciplining perspective?
I have a small, but growing concern that maybe waiting for him to outgrow then is the wrong tactic...might I end up with a 5 year old that still crumples on the floor when anything goes differently from his notions rather than talking with me?
Somehow I thought that by raising him as AP and naturally as possible...i.e. treating him like an individual from birth with respect and love, that we would skip this "stage". I am at a complete loss as to how I should be handling his tantrums or what even is the CAUSE of most of them. We have never used any form of discipline, and I'm not even sure if I SHOULD be stopping these tantrums.
Basically, ds will fly off the handle at the merest drop of the spoon...I come too near him when he's exploring something, I tell him we need to go home now, I sweep the floor ect... basically I have zero idea what's causing them. He'll dance around like he's doing a jig screaming at the top of his lungs, fall on the floor and wallow around for a while screaming and crying. I can't touch him during these fits because it makes him angrier, so for the most part I wait them out when I'm not in a public area. When I am in a store or something, I pick him up while he does the floppy bone thing meaning I have to juggle him from arm to arm or risk dropping him and take him out of the store. In a few minutes he'll be my cheerful little boy again as though nothing happened. There's no hitting of me or my husband, and nothing I would think of as anger at US...but there certainly seems to be a lot of angst at SOMETHING.
Is this normal? How do you respond to tantrums from a non-disciplining perspective?
I have a small, but growing concern that maybe waiting for him to outgrow then is the wrong tactic...might I end up with a 5 year old that still crumples on the floor when anything goes differently from his notions rather than talking with me?
Give yourself a break and know that this is normal and typical for toddlers.
