What to Do When Your Child Throws A Tantrum

As a baby grows into new stages, he or she begins to test the waters on individuality and power. The need to make certain the world continues to revolve solely around their wants becomes overwhelmingly important and if those wants are not recognized they will use their temper to make certain they will be. Often times the child does not have the capacity to verbalize what is wanted and the frustration that is created causes them to use what they do know and that would be to use their motor skills to ‘throw a tantrum’. If the tantrum is not born from frustration, believe it is
purely born from manipulation. ‘I want it and I want it NOW’. Sounds familiar?
Once a child is born to you, things look a little bit differently in many ways. This child, the one you brought into the world knows it is incumbent on him to push as many of your buttons as humanly possible. So, it is going to depend solely on your reaction to his button pushing. Unfortunately, this will tap into how you were raised, how your parents were raised and so on. We all have the capacity to cope with stress and ‘button pushing’ but when it gets too arduous for us, we regrettably fall back into learned behaviors ourselves. If our Mother was a screamer and quite volatile then when we react to our own child’s tantrum’s we might possible react in the same manner. The child will be ecstatic to generate an explosion from you and get you into a screaming match with him.
Ultimately, the parent will have to take control by shutting down the tantrum ‘tool’ and showing the child verbally and by using body language to make the statement ‘manipulation tantrums will not be allowed’. It is important for the parent to teach the child what is acceptable and what is not. It is all part of many, many years of discipline training.


if you want your child to believe in your praise, that you believe in it yourself. Girls in particular are extremely sensitive to criticisms about their appearance. By acknowledging her feelings and allowing her to express herself, you can reassure her and help her to overcome a negative self-image.


yourself that you will stay within that budget. Next you need to decide whether you (and your child / children) are going to go with the traditional pink for girls and blue for boy’s colour schemes, or are you a progressive parent that allows other colours into the scheme as well. Will this decision be influenced by the theme of the room? Of course, if it’s a Barbie theme pink will be very appropriate. Then again, a cars (or Cars – the Disney version) will allow for multiple colours, including blue and red.






