Toddler Tantrums

Life with a toddler is never dull. Never.

Mags is going through a pushing and taking away phase right now. Anything her brother has, she instantly wants, and she pushes him as she snatches it and runs. This results in a lot of tears in the house (both theirs and mine).

Today I tried instituting a naughty spot. In the past, it used to be just sending her to her room until she calmed down. But I was afraid that was giving her the wrong message, so I chose the butterfly rug that's always sloshing about on the floor as a good portable naughty spot. As she was kicking and screaming from one of her recent hate-fests, I explained to her she would need to sit on the naughty spot for 2 minutes for pushing her brother over and hurting him. I figured I would need to return her to the spot a few times, but she would eventually get it. What I didn't count on is that I couldn't get her to stay on the spot at all, period. Instantly after being applied to the spot, she would roll away, kicking and screaming "no, no, no, no" over and over again in hysterics.

After 15 minutes of applying her to the spot, having her roll away, picking her up and re-applying, I gave up. Ethan kept coming over to check out what was going on, and she would continue pushing him while in this hysterical fight of wills. So I closed the door instead and told her she had to stay in her room. I couldn't get her to get on the naughty spot to begin with so why continue fighting all day. The point wasn't getting across to her, obviously.

I don't know how long, but she continued the hysterical tantrum for quite some time. I'm not one to let my kids cry, but she wasn't in need of anything other than venting. The only cure was to let her wind down on her own. Even if she sounded like she was in a torture chamber.

What is it that makes little kids get so wound up? I know there's all this stuff about them exploring the world and their place in it, testing boundaries, etc. But I never would have imagined a child could continue on for as long as she did over nothing really. The tantrum started before the punishment (she was cranky when she started pushing Ethan).

In any case, she's calmed down now. But I'm frazzled. Babies crying for something I can handle. Toddlers screaming for no good reason, I'm stumped. I'm completely at a loss.