Dealing with Terrible Twos
Terrible two’s are not a fun part of raising children. My little man who used to be the sweetest, kindest little boy has suddenly turned into this little monster. It is hard to tell when the switch will go off and it can get a little frustrating.
He has delayed speech and a lot of the temper comes from not being able to communicate with us. We have him in speech therapy which is helping but my issue isn’t with that. It’s with the not being able to handle the word No. When we tell him he can’t have what he wants or do what he wants he gets very upset. He is going through the biting and fighting phase and I worry that since he does this with us and his older sister, will he do that with other kids in classes or in the playground? How do we explain since words just aren’t cutting it, that it is wrong to do these things when he is angry. The other day, I had to give him a time out. He refused to sit in the time out spot so I put him in my lap and held him. He started to hit me, so I held his hands. This upset him so he tried to bite me. I positioned myself in a way where he could no longer bite me so he then chose to try and head butt me, all so he wouldn’t have to be in time out. I’m sure many people might’ve just let him go, but I am a believer in the follow through. I didn’t want to give him the idea that if he hits me or someone else, then he will get what he wants.
I have no idea what is right and what is wrong when dealing with this. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the terrible two’s throw something else at me. Our latest issue is bed time. He used to be really easy to put down. Now he will ask to go potty two or three times even though he doesn’t do anything when he goes. This has been going on for a few nights now. He is potty training, so I don’t want to tell him he can’t go but I also can’t encourage the fooling around.
Our speech therapist has scheduled a phone call for me to speak to a behavioural analyst. I know my son is a sweet little boy but something is frustrating him that is causing this behaviour. I want to help him deal with this in a non violent, kinder way. I am hoping she can help us do this.
I would love to hear some feedback from our Oh Baby! readers. Have any of you dealt with this? How did you get through this phase?
