[Pepe]

DS is lately VERY easily frustrated, crying/melting down/giving up if a toy won't cooperate, there aren't any cookies, we call a friend who is disappointingly not home, the cat knocks his Lincoln Log structure over...you get the idea. Pretty much all the time, or so it seems, these days. Any tips?<br><br>
We take deep breaths, we start again, we use language to talk about how we feel (he's typically quite good at articulating how he feels and why), we focus on next time, we rewind and calmly ask for help, we (parents) try to model how to recover from disappointment...in tonight's bedtime story, I even created a character whose block tower kept falling over, and he would cry and cry, but finally he learned to roll with it and not flip out (and then when he was calm he decided to glue the tower so that wouldn't happen anymore).<br><br>
Any books that deal with this?<br><br>
I don't really want to "rescue" him every single time he gets exasperated, either. Ideally, I'd like him to develop a little more resilience and self-sufficiency, but at this point I think we should start with damage control and go from there!<br><br>
Thanks in advance.<br><br>
PS If you have any thoughts on building my own stores of patience during this new phase, oh please do tell! It's not my favorite phase.

 

[Pepe]

BTW, in asking for book recommendations, I was initially thinking about kids' books that deal with this in a story--but come to think of it, I'll happily accept recommendations of parenting books, too! Thank you.

 

[SeekingSerenity]

Subbing here, because I have a 4-yo daughter that is INCREDIBLY sensitive to criticism. You even laugh at something cute she does and she takes it personally, thinking she's being ridiculed. Earlier today, she could not figure out where a sticker went on a "Find the Hidden Image" puzzle and it was cause for tears, anger, throwing the sticker-book, etc.<br><br>
Maybe it's a stage. I have talked to her, loved on her, cuddled her, done everything to try and calm her and make her feel comfortable with the sometimes-negative emotions that overwhelm her, yet still she can't seem to process these feelings and deal with them in a healthier way.

 

[Pepe]

SeekingSerenity--would you say your daughter has perfectionist tendencies? DS sort of does, and I am a recovering perfectionist who also leans toward being oversensitive. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"> Maybe it's a stage AND a personality quirk, or a combination of the two.<br><br>
Good luck to you/us/them!

 

[SeekingSerenity]

Oh yes, I would definitely say she struggles with perfectionism. It's one of those things we have to work with pretty regularly because if something is not absolutely the way she believes it should be, it's cause for another emotional outburst. It certainly could be a contributing factor to the sensitivity issues!