Trisha R Sides

This is a topic I can really relate to, so I have to come out of lurkdom
again :)
My boy is 8 and he's a really sensitive and creative kid, but the flip
side of that is he often gets frustrated easily, throwing temper tantrums
for the oddest ( to me at least) reasons. The other day we were watching
a dvd , that we own by the way and can watch anytime, and he was geting
restless, not paying attention, so I stopped it, and he FREAKED out , and
started screaming like he was being stabbed or something, and yelling at
me to turn it on , " quick, hurry," like it was a t.v. program he was
going to miss. ( In reality it was LOTR which he's seen at least 20 times
now!) We went through probably 30 minutes of screaming and crying and
teling me he hated me and pounding on the wall, before he finally calmed
down, and then - HE DIDN"T WANT To watch the movie!
This happens alot, although not always as bad, when things don't go just
his way. It's a problem we deal with all the time. One thing that often
works for us, is that I will mirror his action s back to him, if he bangs
the wall , I bang the wall, and usually in a over the top exaggerated
way, or I make a really obnoxious sound or face, and we wind up laughing,
which breaks the tension.

Reminding him/ helping him to breathe often helps as well.

If he yells ,I hate you!, I'll say, yeah, I know, like it's no big, or
else,(in a real sweet tone:) yes, of course , I hate you too! To this he
usually responds " No you don't! " so I'll say No YOU don't and often
leads to a discussion about emotions, and how anger can feel like hatred,
or how you can love someone very much, but yet not like them at the
moment, etc. etc. - we've had some pretty good conversations here.

Often, I just sit back and let him get it out of his system, then he's
fine.
Then there's the days when my patience is short and I snap back at him
and it turns into a day long power struggle! Not proud of THOSE days, but
they happen , much more than I'd like to admit :)

I can't really offer any advce about out in public though, as I lucked
out there. He's usualy a perfect angel in front of other people!

Trisha

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In a message dated 12/18/02 9:07:38 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ursadiana@... writes:

> If he yells ,I hate you!, I'll say, yeah, I know, like it's no big, or
> else,(in a real sweet tone:) yes, of course , I hate you too! To this he
> usually responds " No you don't! " so I'll say No YOU don't and often
> leads to a discussion about emotions, and how anger can feel like hatred,
> or how you can love someone very much, but yet not like them at the
> moment, etc. etc. - we've had some pretty good conversations here.
>
>

Ive donet hat too.. Or I'll saythat Oks. I LUVVVVVV you.. tickle and "goose"
him.


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