Kids Are Human Too

My granddaughter and her friend were just hanging out when my granddaughter decided she wanted to “practice her dancing”. The other little girl was kind of just sitting there with nothing to do so she decided to “practice her singing”. And that’s where things escalated quickly.

My granddaughter told, not asked, her friend to stop singing because she couldn’t concentrate on her dancing. Well didn’t that start an argument. My granddaughter flung her body onto the mattress in the room face down. When I didn’t pay attention to what she had done, she ran into her bedroom and slammed the door.

I still didn’t pay any attention to what she had done so she came out of the bedroom a little calmer, I sat her on my knee, hugged her, and asked what was up. She explained that she was dancing first but then her friend started singing so she couldn’t concentrate on her dancing. I asked her if taking turns would help but no, she just wanted to dance. Then I asked if timing their turns would help.

That’s when I took off my Fitbit and set the timer for five minutes and showed them how to reset it. I explained the fairest thing to do was to take turns and so everybody is even I gave my granddaughter my Fitbit. The timer made all the difference in world. Both girls were willing to comprimise and got time to practice their “perfomances”. I told the girls there is always a solution if we stop and think for a minute.

There are a few reasons I didn’t address the tantrum, not the least of which is recognizing there are factors that make us vulnerable to runaway emotions. One of the factors in my granddaughter’s tantrum was that she had been up later than usual the night before so she was exhausted and vulnerable to having such a tantrum.

We seem to expect so much more from our children than we do ourselves. I’m guilty of having tantrums even in my early 50’s. Not the slam-the-door kind but I do make the odd unnecessary snide remark, or cry out of frustration and anger. Being tired makes me vulenrable, just like my granddaughter.