Knowing of Toddler Tantrums Does Not Make You Automatically Calm in Responding

Every parent I knew had warned me about toddler tantrums. Some called them The Terrible Two’s, others called them The Tumultuous Three’s. 

So I knew the tantrums were coming, and they weren’t going to be a walk in the park. 

But knowing that toddler tantrums were normal wasn’t enough to automatically help me to respond to them calmly.

Wanting to approach tantrums calmly when you’re exhausted, your toddler refuses to go to bed for the 10th time and you’ve also got a baby to get to sleep, can quickly send you to “over it” town. Then I’d feel bad about my reaction. 

I soon realised, every parent that had effectively helped a toddler through a tantrum had to have implemented skills to navigate tantrums, not just know about them.

It’s like knowing the theory behind driving a car, which is important, versus actually having the skills and experience to drive in traffic. 

How can you feel bad about something that you never took the time to learn the proper skills for? 

Helping your toddler through tantrums in a healthy way starts with becoming aware of what is going on in your mind as the tantrum is occurring. Your thoughts convey an emotion and your toddler picks up on this. 

I call this the Emotion Diffuser. It helps you to stay calm and teaches your toddler to calm down quickly. 

Knowledge alone is not enough. The pattern will keep repeating. 

You can learn, like I did, to be the calm parent you want to be for your child. 

Here’s 3 tips on transforming toddler tantrums that helped me when my toddler refused to sleep. 

Hope they can help you or parents that you know that have toddlers.