What to Do About a Tantrum

I spoke with Griffin's psychologist yesterday and he told me that maybe it would get worse before it gets better....the tantrums that is. Griffin has learned that tantrums work because mommy gets embarrassed in the store and gives into them and yes I know that that is the absolute worse thing that I can do but hey people.....I am alone here without any support and it is hard! I know that that is no excuse for not being a hard nose and for not being consistent with him but when he has a tantrum and puts his whole body into it there is little that I can do other than make a huge scene and try to physically restrain his 80 lb body on the floor where he ends up flailing! By the time that I am restraining him I am sure that someone is calling the cops or social services for child abuse.....this is what I imagine happening because he would be screaming that I was hurting him as he always does and there's just no way that it would end up on a good note.

So instead this is what we are going to do: I am going to set the two of us up for success by giving Griffin the rules in the car before we go in. For example: No walking away from mommy, no picking up items and putting them in the cart, and no tantrums. Then if he follows the rules after a practice run of about 7 minutes he will get a reward of an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen or Mc Donald's or something special and cheap. We will do about 3 practice runs this week to see how it goes and report back to the doctor next week. The practice runs are only 7 minutes long to make sure that there is success and I imagine that we will increase the amount of time as we go along. So maybe they won't get worse before they get better after all.....maybe this is the recipe for success and things are going to run smoothly. I will let you know soon because we are going to go on our first practice run today. I have got my fingers crossed!

Have a New Kid by Friday  is an excellent book if you are looking for some way to get your child to listen to you and to pay attention to you. I just started it but so far it has had a profound effect on me as far as my perspective on how I approach Griffin and how I talk to him. It is a book on how to change your child's attitude, behavior, and character in 5 days and having read what I have I believe that it is possible! Just click on the highlighted blue links to purchase the book either new or used.