Drama Queens…not just for girls

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I was warned that it wasn’t the terrible twos that get you but the terrible threes.  That is when the fun really begins, or so I was told.  As with many things since I got pregnant, the veteran moms (ie people who have been a mom at least a year longer then me) were very right.  In defense of that gorgeous creature, his tantrums and fits do not last very long and he isn’t throwing himself on the floor in the middle of the grocery store.  He doesn’t hit himself or us, bite himself or us and he isn’t turning red with rage and becoming the hulk.

However, it is annoying and it is driving me and Papi…a wee bit crazy.  When you have a fairly mellow child who has always been pretty easy to parent and explain things to (seriously, we can rationally explain things to him and he almost always gets it), even a 30 second tantrum can blow your mind.  I know we have it easy, I do, I know some of your kids trash your house in fits or scream for a seemingly never-ending amount of time and I don’t know how you do it but these tantrums are our version.

I think the main fight right now is that if Nathaniel wants something and doesn’t get it he immediately starts crying and shaking his head in a ‘no no no no’ kind of way and turns read.

Won’t let him watch a show he wants?  Crying.

Give him a broken cracker?  Crying.

Tell him that no he can’t take a cup to bed?  Crying.

You may not go to the park without pants.  Crying.

There is no rhyme of reason to what he will get mad about it and the fits don’t last very long but they are so frequent and so irrational that it’s enough to drive me all the way to crazytown some days.  We could be having a wonderful day and in .2 seconds his entire day is ruined and it’s your fault and he’s sighing and ughing and whining about it all day and acting like you’ve ruined his life.  And so friends, drama queen fits are not just for teenage girls, they are for three year old boys as well.