Spirited Toddler Support Tribe?

[AFWife]

Is there one? There should be. This is HARD!!!

[chipper26]

I don't know if my LO is technically spirited, but I know my patience with her is running too thin. She is in the "no" stage, the control stage, the indecision stage, the whining stage and whatever other stage you can think of that makes her SO difficult to deal with. She's only 2 and less than 4 months. I keep hearing that 3 is worse and it's scaring me.

Everyday we battle and too often lately I am not the parent I want to be. I get so angry with her. Diaper changes are a huge issue. I have to negotiate with her about what she wears. The other day I had to force her into her car seat after waiting and waiting for her to "slide down" into it the exact way she wanted. Then she screamed and cried the whole way home form the grocery store. If things do not go exactly as she wishes or she is corrected in anyway, there's a huge tantrum.

I could go on. This had by far been the most challenging stage. I often find myself at a loss as to how to deal with her. So, do we fit into the spirited category or is this just totally normal 2's behavior?

[Norasmomma]

2 was the worst for me, DD was really pretty difficult from 19m-2.5. Very difficult. I could have been in this tribe 2 years ago, every single day was a battler and the only thing that really saved my sanity was the help I got here on MDC, no one IRL knew how much *more* a spirited child can be. I do have one friend now who has a son who is nearly as wound up as DD, but at 4 she has mellowed. She is the most difficult kid in her preschool, her impulse control can be defined at times as non-existent, but she is better than she was by a mile.

I totally understand how hard it is. I've dealt(and am still dealing with )the car rides home with screaming.

[springmum]

YES....tired.....my 2.5 yr old DS was up at 4:30 today ready to take on the world...yawn.

My spirited toddler is often described by others as INTENSE. He feels everything more intensely and does everything bigger, louder and with more energy.
He is also the most GENTLE and loving little boy. Sure he gets into everything, but he is not aggressive with other children ever. In fact I caught him kissing another little girl the other day and telling her "I love you" after she continuously wouldn't let him climb up a ladder he was trying to get up

When he is mad, he is MAD. When he is sad, he is SAD. When he is happy he is bouncing off the walls. He can't sit still..but not in an ADHD type of way. It's just that his body needs to move. Even when he eats it's a constant battle to keep him sitting. If we're eating away from home, he'll gladly not eat if it means he can keep playing/exploring.

I've read the book "Raising your Spirited Child" and I would say is an extrovert for sure. He gets totally energized by being around people. If I don't get him out to see other people, he completely relies on me for energy. He wants me to watch him play, play with him, play near me....very draining.

He's been draining since the beginning. Started walking at 9.5 months, talking full sentences at 1.5, which many people somehow thought was cute, smart etc. For me all it has meant is that I totally missed out on him being a baby, once his feet hit the ground he was a toddler and he was gone....needed to see the world, needed to know and talk about the world.

If you're ever in the grocery store with us, you'll hear him singing loudly, talking about or wanting to know about EVERYTHING....LOUDLY. He'll say hi to everyone. Unless of course he's in a bad mood, then he will have no problem letting the entire store know it with his screams of displeasure that could break the windows.

Well he's got half his toys dumped now, and he's running around in circles singing, jumping and skipping, and asking to go out and play.....it's only 6:30.....yawn again......

[Norasmomma]

Originally Posted by springmum

YES....tired.....my 2.5 yr old DS was up at 4:30 today ready to take on the world...yawn.

My spirited toddler is often described by others as INTENSE. He feels everything more intensely and does everything bigger, louder and with more energy.
He is also the most GENTLE and loving little boy. Sure he gets into everything, but he is not aggressive with other children ever. In fact I caught him kissing another little girl the other day and telling her "I love you" after she continuously wouldn't let him climb up a ladder he was trying to get up

When he is mad, he is MAD. When he is sad, he is SAD. When he is happy he is bouncing off the walls. He can't sit still..but not in an ADHD type of way. It's just that his body needs to move. Even when he eats it's a constant battle to keep him sitting. If we're eating away from home, he'll gladly not eat if it means he can keep playing/exploring.

I've read the book "Raising your Spirited Child" and I would say is an extrovert for sure. He gets totally energized by being around people. If I don't get him out to see other people, he completely relies on me for energy. He wants me to watch him play, play with him, play near me....very draining.

He's been draining since the beginning. Started walking at 9.5 months, talking full sentences at 1.5, which many people somehow thought was cute, smart etc. For me all it has meant is that I totally missed out on him being a baby, once his feet hit the ground he was a toddler and he was gone....needed to see the world, needed to know and talk about the world.

If you're ever in the grocery store with us, you'll hear him singing loudly, talking about or wanting to know about EVERYTHING....LOUDLY. He'll say hi to everyone. Unless of course he's in a bad mood, then he will have no problem letting the entire store know it with his screams of displeasure that could break the windows.

Well he's got half his toys dumped now, and he's running around in circles singing, jumping and skipping, and asking to go out and play.....it's only 6:30.....yawn again......

My DD was the same exact way. She was never really a baby, she crawled, cruised all at 6.5 months. She said "hi" to a lady in the store at 7 months, was also speaking in full sentences at 18 months. Dropped her naps then too. At age 2 my grandma(whom I also cannot stand) said she should be checked for ADD. I was accosted in the grocery store when she was 19 months by an evil elderly couple who thought she was "mentally ill" because she screeched in the store one day. She also was in the 90th percentile, so she looked bigger and presumably older because of her size and vocabulary. She NEVER took the word No for an answer, no just meant I'll try it again to see how much it bugs her. The word to describe her has always been "active".

My son is learning from her, but I don't think he is a spirited, he walked at 10 months, is now running at almost 13 months. He STTN and always has, DD still doesn't most nights. His pregnancy with her energy nearly did me in, she was so much more keen on things than other kids I know. I remember one day swimming with her at the river watching a little boy the same age, he just sat and played I was like what the heck is wrong with my kid. She's just more, she's mellowed now at 4, but still she's way more intense than most kids I know her age.

Raising Your Spirited Child helped me so much, it made me realize the psychological components of her personality.

[doulawoman]

wishing we could revive this thread or one like it...i'm so lost with my 14 mo right now...intense is definitely right...