Looking to diffuse tantrums without the battle?
Here is another tip that works wonderfully at our house: puppets!
Our local library has a slew of puppets that you can check out and bring home with you. My kids LOVE these (and I really love the library, too!)
This week’s puppet selection includes a little bear in a sleeping bag and a clam with two eyes that you can wiggle around with your fingers.
How does a puppet tame a tantrum?
Last night Eli, my 4-year-old, started melting down when it was time to clean up toys and go upstairs for bedtime. Rather than trying to reason with an emotionally charged child, I whipped out the clam puppet.
Turns out, this clam puppet LOVES to lick little children. So I chased my boys around with the puppet “licking” them with the clam. The LOVED it and all thoughts of tantrum were forgotten.
The clam read the boys their bedtime stories (stories were peppered with the occasional lick-break so the clam could fill his licking quota).
60 Second Parenting Tip:
Lots of fun for all of us. It would have been very easy for me to get frustrated and snippy with my kids and turn this situation into a knock-out, drag down battle. But I’ve dine that before and I don’t like how it makes me feel as a mom and I don’t like the messages it gives my kids.
So instead, I took 60 seconds and grabbed a puppet and turned frustration into fun. It was that easy.
What are some ways you change a situation like this around?
