ds had his first REAL meltdown today

[taramoon13]

ds just turned 3 and he's pretty even-keeled in general. he's had small meltdowns that never lasted more than 5 min., but whoa tonight was a wopper. we were about to go into a restaurant and he just got hysterical over nothing and didn't calm down for a good 20 min. before we could go in the restaurant. i know that he was starving, but obviously there was no reasoning with him at this point. i know most of you will say you would've just turned around & gone home, but that really wasn't the best option at this point, having to go through loading him into the car and prolonging the whole eating thing. it didn't help that dh kept going back & forth between being sympathetic & being angry to ds. once ds calmed down we went in and he was fine, but wow, i'm just wondering if this is the beginning of a new phase!?!? any tips on how you would've dealt with this?

[spmamma]

Sounds pretty typical for this age, although I must say you are incredibly lucky to make it this long with no major meltdowns!

You mentioned that his tantrum was over nothing, but I suspect that he actually had a "reason" for freaking out. Things that adults may not see as important are actually very important to our toddlers and when you add something big like hunger or fatigue into the mix you're going to get an emotional explosion.

Maybe he didn't want to hold hands while walking to the restaurant, or maybe he thought you were going to get Mexican food and you ended up in an Italian restaurant instead, who knows. I know his logic behind the freak out may seem flimsy, but they're very real to him.

If you're lucky, you'll skate by without too many more of these!