How to Deal With Tantrums-International Sunshine Home

Recently, Doudou has lost his temper and cried a lot at school. During today’s class his teacher told the children a story from the picture book “A Very Hungry Caterpillar”.

As the teacher pulled out the book, Doudou walked up to the teacher and patted the book, saying, “I don’t want to listen to this story. I don’t want listen to this story, I don’t want to! I don’t want to!” Then he sat on the floor and began to cry again.

In this situation, I silently went to pick Doudou off the ground. I wanted to carry him to the side and sit him down, but he was so reluctant and continued to cry. So I walked away silently, leaving him alone to vent his emotions.

I didn’t expect that less than five minutes after he would have calmed himself down and stopped crying. After doing so, I went over to him and asked him why he didn’t want to listen to the story. He said he didn’t like caterpillars. I said that the caterpillar in the story might not be the same as the caterpillar he knew. Then to my surprise, he listened with interest to the story about the caterpillar.

With respect to children’s tantrums, I find that the cold treatment works extremely well. When a child is in a mood and losing their temper, they won’t listen to anything you tell them. Or, they might seize upon a pretext and give vent to their feelings.

Let the child cry for a while if they want to. Once no one is paying attention to him or her, the child will find that it’s no use in crying so they will gradually calm down.

After all, as long as there is an audience, the child will continue their performance and keep crying. If there is no audience, the little actor will soon be bored. When they are able to calm themselves down, they will act like a good child again!