Amy seems to be on a mission to "want" every single thing I can't possibly give her: "I want grapes." [We don't have any grapes.] "I want to go to the playground." [It's bedtime.] "I want Baba and Papa to come over." [They're 1000 miles away.] "I want cookies." [Cookies are a treat, we don't have cookies every night.] "I want to color with markers." [It's dinnertime.] "I want to carry the plates to the table." [They're breakable.] She's not trying to drive me nuts -- I assume developmentally this has something to do with learning to identify and express her own desires. And she doesn't usually have a fit when I tell her no, but it's still wearing me down. Do you even bother trying to explain why each thing is impossible? Or do you just say "You want cookies? Yeah, cookies are yummy, but we're not having cookies right now." (Or "The playground is fun, but we're not going to the playground right now.") I know I don't have to justify my decisions to her, but at the same time, I don't want to provoke any tantrums if I can help it.
QUOTE Do you even bother trying to explain why each thing is impossible? Or do you just say "You want cookies? Yeah, cookies are yummy, but we're not having cookies right now." (Or "The playground is fun, but we're not going to the playground right now.") I know I don't have to justify my decisions to her, but at the same time, I don't want to provoke any tantrums if I can help it. I guess I would decide based on how simple each answer is and just how I felt in the moment. For example saying "We can't go to the playground now because it is bedtime" is just as easy to say/understand as "The playground is fun, but we're not going to the playground right now." so you might as well give the reason. But with the cookie thing you might not feel like getting into a long explanation about not having cookies every day because it's not healthy for us, so in that case a simple "We're not having cookies right now" would work fine.
I always sing ... "you can't always have what you want ...!". If I have "time", I'll explain why not (and/or try to offer an alternative), but I don't always have time for "I want" and then I just sing ... and move on (in the most ideal situation!).
I try to give some sort of reason behind why we can't have or do something, and that seems to satisfy them. If possible, I offer some kind of alternative. like "we can't have a cookie right now, but how about some apple slices?" If it's something like going to the playground right before bed (I've gotten that too) I say like "No silly! It's not time for that! It's almost bedtime!" and I might point out how they ate dinner, and then had a bath, and now they are in pajamas, and is that when you go to the playground? No! Other stuff like "I want to see Oma and PopPop" when that's not feasible at the moment, sometimes I'll call them and they can talk on the phone, or I tell them that Oma and PopPop are going to bed, eating their dinner, etc.
Right now, I can get away with saying "we can't go to the playground now, its too dark out we won't be able to see"
I go through this as well. Like tonght there were no more string cheese and Jesse took a fit because he wanted one .. I tried to explain that we would go to the store tomorrow and get more but he wasnt hearing it. :angry: I hope its a short lived stage. <_<
