Comforting Children

[torontokids]

After some thought I am going to move our snack outside and make it a little later in the morning. I find they eat more if they are outside.

I can't put him to bed because we spend all day outside and that isn't practical. I will find a spot for him t sit and cry though. It is hard to listen to and part of why I feel I should do more is that he has been like this since he came a yr a go and it isn't getting much better...also I wonder what the neighbours think.

[Lee-Bee]

My 2yr old daughter is a very strong willed, strong personality child. She will lose it and scream endlessly. I ignore her fits BUT I do need to give her a reality check while she is screaming. "if you continue to scream I will have to take you __ away" "we are having snack now when you stop screaming you can join us". If I just leave her she will scream for a long time. When I say the above it cue her in to what she will miss if she choses to continue.

I don't talk to her other than to say she will miss something or have something taken away if she continues. She usually then stops within a minute or two because she has a reason to stop. She then choses to stop on her own. After she is calm I remind her it is not fair for the rest of us to listen to the screaming and I inform her of what she missed while screaming.

Often the toddlers and young kids that scream for long periods...they have tuned the world out and are so focused on their screaming that they don't realize the consequence of having sat there screaming. Gentle reminders help them put it in perspective and in time help them decide not to scream so long...and hopefully at all.