I am looking for information and anecdotes about children that are about 20 months old and their tendency to throw tantrums.

My nephew has started to become belligerent when it comes to throwing tantrums. For example, he gets a hold of something that we would not like him to hold, then refuse to give it back. Usually we would try to distract him with some other attractive object and sneak the former object while he is not looking. If we even try to gently wrest the object from his grasp, he starts crying really badly. Like really badly. It is a bit terrifying.

Part of me thinks that this behaviour is learnt. He must have noticed this strategy working for him in the past so he has begun to do it more.

On the other hand, children do be throwing tantrums. I also don't want to baselessly entertain the notion of stricter parenting. As a cold, heartless individual I try to be skeptical of approaches like this to counterbalance my biases.

Thoughts and experiences?

  • the_itsb [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    It sounds like he would really enjoy a water table, which would let him play with water for hours without wasting hundreds of gallons.

    My nephew's caretakers used to talk about how the cousin is a difficult child to deal with because of her predisposition to throw tantrums. I raised the issue that my nephew could have similar behaviour and they said "that just won't happen"

    this makes me very sad to read - it sounds like these kids have emotional and sensory needs that aren't being met (or even acknowledged as needs), and when they display distress about this, it's called a tantrum 😔