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Firefly 06:21 AM 11-14-2018
How do you teach kids to wait for what they want? I have a 2.5 yr old who really needs help in this area. When he wants something he wants it now. I’ll tell him just a minute and he throws a fit. Also whenever I correct his behavior by telling him “don’t do that” or “no” he has a meltdown.
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Blackcat31 07:02 AM 11-14-2018
Originally Posted by Firefly:
How do you teach kids to wait for what they want? I have a 2.5 yr old who really needs help in this area. When he wants something he wants it now. I’ll tell him just a minute and he throws a fit. Also whenever I correct his behavior by telling him “don’t do that” or “no” he has a meltdown.
Practice practice practice....rinse and repeat.

That's all you can do.

His behavior sounds typical for a child that age.
Some kids pick it up faster than others.
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Josiegirl 09:18 AM 11-14-2018
Oh my, you actually say no to the child??
I have a 2 yo(birthday was Sept.) whose favorite thing now is to scream when she can't get what she wants. At lunch today, I'd made enough brown rice for 2 generous servings and divided it between the 2 dcks at lunch. She just about inhaled hers and I said it's all gone. She did her screaming thing for a couple minutes; tried ignoring her and when that didn't work I simply picked her up and put her in her crib, out of our sight. Took her less than 5 minutes and she was fine to return for lunch. Tantrums are best ignored, even though it's hard.
As BC said, this age is notorious for screaming tantrums and wanting instant gratification. They'll figure it out by your patient 'in a minute' repetitions or completely ignoring the meltdowns.
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Ariana 09:47 AM 11-14-2018
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Practice practice practice....rinse and repeat.

That's all you can do.

His behavior sounds typical for a child that age.
Some kids pick it up faster than others.
All of this! At this age kids lack impulse control and this is pretty much how they learn it, through thoughtful persistent discipline. This is why 0-5yrs is when kids learn the most.

Hang in there
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daycarediva 11:05 AM 11-14-2018
Ahh 2's. Language and helping them verbalize helps, imo.

"You are angry. I see your face. You wanted more rice. You LIKED the rice. Rice is yummy. But our rice is all gone now. We can have apples and chicken and peas now." (or whatever else you're serving)

If just validating doesn't help (50/50 with my 18m-2.5yo's) I say "It's ok to be ______ but it's not ok to be _____________." and move them until they are calm. Then I praise the calm and they rejoin the group.
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Firefly 11:46 AM 11-14-2018
Meal and snack times are challenging too. He gets quite upset about food. Let’s say we’re having apples and carrot sticks for snack. He’ll eat all his apples and want more but not touch his carrots. I’ll say “let’s try our carrots, carrots are yummy” and he’ll start screaming. There’s talking to him at that point.
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littlefriends 12:00 PM 11-14-2018
I have one that does this, every single time he does it I don’t say a word I just pick him up and take him to my gated toddler area and put him in and walk off. When he’s over it I go get him out and bring him back. When he’s quiet I’ll say you hurt our ears when you scream like that so you have to be over there by yourself but when you’re nice you can be over here with us. I found that trying to say anything while he’s screaming just doesn’t work. He’s learned really well and now when he throws himself down on the floor and starts to scream 9 times out of 10 he stops as soon as I pick him up to walk to the gate!
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Pestle 12:16 PM 11-14-2018
For "later," which is too nebulous a concept for my 2- and 3-year-olds, I say, "Yes! You may have the firefighter toys. First, I will finish changing the baby. Then, I will get you the firefighter toys."

"Yes, you may have more cheese! First, you will eat all your green beans. Then, you will get more cheese." (I like that because it throws responsibility for not-getting-more-cheese on the kids instead of on myself.)
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coloradoprovider 12:52 PM 11-14-2018
Originally Posted by Pestle:
For "later," which is too nebulous a concept for my 2- and 3-year-olds, I say, "Yes! You may have the firefighter toys. First, I will finish changing the baby. Then, I will get you the firefighter toys."

"Yes, you may have more cheese! First, you will eat all your green beans. Then, you will get more cheese." (I like that because it throws responsibility for not-getting-more-cheese on the kids instead of on myself.)
This! I try to limit "No" to behavior that has to stop immediately. "Yes, we can . . ., but first I need to . . ." "Yes, but . . ." "Yes . . . first we need to . . ." etc. "Yes, you may . . . after you . . ."

Totally agree that the desired outcome depends on their cooperation! If the answer is "No" for example,such as "can we go to the park again?" - when it's close to pick-up time. I'll answer something like this: "Yes, but not today it's too close to pickup time. We'll go again another day - I know it's lots of fun - what did you do today? slide, swing, etc." yeah, diversion works wonders!
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Tags:patience, teaching - patience
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