Having trouble dealing with screaming almost 3 year old :(

[carmen358]

My DD will be 3 at the end of December. Overall, she's a really laid back, happy, social, intelligent kid. Sometimes she decides to skip a nap - not a big deal, we don't force sleep. However, by the time we head to bed in the evening she often starts SCREAMING and hitting and kicking almost uncontrollably for no apparent reason (other than being overtired of course). I *know* it's just because she's overtired and yes, we should get her to bed earlier on no nap days. In the moment though I get really, really angry and I really don't know how to deal with the inconsolable crying. I try so hard to just be calm and present but I feel my blood boiling. It's a strange reaction and I wish it didn't happen but it does :( I really want to be able to deal with these times in a positive, compassionate way but I'm at a loss. I hate how I feel in these moments...and more importantly, I hate how my DD must feel when she's aware that I'm so angry. I don't yell at her or anything but I'm not very pleasant with her and I sometimes just have to leave the room because I feel like I'm going to lose it.

Suggestions, please? (Other than get her to bed earlier....)

[newmamalizzy]

I feel for you, as my DD has a tendency to be overtired and boy can she be horrendous right when I'm at my most tired, too.  One thing I do when I'm having a lot of trouble controlling my reaction to her tiredness is to be silent.  I put all of my focus into keeping my physical movements to her gentle, and I remove speech from the picture so that I don't have to worry about what I might say or how I might say it.  It's not exactly a positive way of treating her, but it's better than losing control. 

If I have a little more in me, I'll sing.  My daughter almost always calms down if I sing to her, even when she has the overtired crazy thing going on.  I don't sing regular songs - I put our life into song.  You can sort of use the inflection of the singing to let out some of your urge to yell, too. 

And I'll be on the watch for more responses to this.  It's so hard to manage anger when you can't have time to yourself.

[Pookietooth]

We have simliar issues. Not sure what to do. My kids both hate sleep, and I am thinking that their sensory processing issues have something to do with that. Google "self-regulation" and "regulation dysfunction"