Hi!
My dd (4 1/2) seems to be going through a very tough time right now. I just don't know how concerned I should be.
She is basically fine at school (3 mornings a week, a co-op), according to her teacher, although she has always been known as somewhat of a drama queen of the quiet variety. "She's just really good at looking pathetic" is what both the 3-year old's teacher and the 4 year old teacher have said. But these moments pass quickly and she plays happily, enjoying her friends and taking part in all activities.
For about the last month at home, though, she has been doing this thing where one small thing will go wrong (she can't watch TV or eat cookies for breakfast, she gets a timeout, her sister (1 1/2) is playing with one of her toys and won't instantly hand it over) and after that nothing anyone says or does is acceptable. She screams, cries, throws things, kicks me if I try to comfort her, etc.- sometimes for up to an hour. She can't or won't tell me much of the time why she is crying
The part that confuses me the most is that sometimes I can hear her calming down, and then she seems to realize it and seems to urge herself on to louder screaming, like she WANTS to be feeling out of control. Or wants to make me crazy
. Or needs something but can't articulate it, so is just screaming instead, in a sort of artificial kind of way.
So my question to everyone is, have you experienced this at this age? Is this normal? What I have been doing much of the time is to just carry her to a quiet room and give her space to scream herself out, since she REALLY doesn't want me to comfort her. Does anyone have other suggestions? If I am in the room with her a lot of the stuff gets directed at me ("I hate you, you're a bad mommy", etc.) and I find it very difficult to tolerate or ignore.
My dd (4 1/2) seems to be going through a very tough time right now. I just don't know how concerned I should be.
She is basically fine at school (3 mornings a week, a co-op), according to her teacher, although she has always been known as somewhat of a drama queen of the quiet variety. "She's just really good at looking pathetic" is what both the 3-year old's teacher and the 4 year old teacher have said. But these moments pass quickly and she plays happily, enjoying her friends and taking part in all activities.
For about the last month at home, though, she has been doing this thing where one small thing will go wrong (she can't watch TV or eat cookies for breakfast, she gets a timeout, her sister (1 1/2) is playing with one of her toys and won't instantly hand it over) and after that nothing anyone says or does is acceptable. She screams, cries, throws things, kicks me if I try to comfort her, etc.- sometimes for up to an hour. She can't or won't tell me much of the time why she is crying
The part that confuses me the most is that sometimes I can hear her calming down, and then she seems to realize it and seems to urge herself on to louder screaming, like she WANTS to be feeling out of control. Or wants to make me crazy
. Or needs something but can't articulate it, so is just screaming instead, in a sort of artificial kind of way.So my question to everyone is, have you experienced this at this age? Is this normal? What I have been doing much of the time is to just carry her to a quiet room and give her space to scream herself out, since she REALLY doesn't want me to comfort her. Does anyone have other suggestions? If I am in the room with her a lot of the stuff gets directed at me ("I hate you, you're a bad mommy", etc.) and I find it very difficult to tolerate or ignore.
