Terrible 2, Meet Terrible 3

A friend emailed me an article this weekend, and since it’s Sunday night and frankly my brain is a little tired tonight anyways, thought I’d simply copy and paste some insights from a veteran mom on that misnomer popularly referred to as the terrible 2s. In fact, I think that is why I'm tired tonight...battling the terrible 2s stunts and spells of Paige and Taylor.

Anyways, here is the article:

“Those people that tell you that the "Terrible 2s" are bad aren’t telling you the whole story. The whole truth is that Terrible 2s really last into the Terrible 3s. And both years are challenging.

Calling it the Terrible 2s slash 3s, just didn’t roll off the tongue. So the good people who cleverly name these sorts of things must have decided, given the choice, to warn people at the earliest possible time. Thus the name, Terrible 2s.

Millions of people look forward to their kid’s 3rd birthday hoping, that as they blow out the candles on their cake, out go the demons that took over their 2 year old bodies. That just doesn’t happen. The tantrums continue, the different ways your child can contradict you grows, and the time-outs (and sometimes swats to the bottoms) increase.

When my daughter turned three, I felt like I lost my excuse for her behavior. She wasn’t 2 anymore so clearly it couldn’t be the terrible 2s! I was wrong. You just need to know that even though your kids have grown a little older, and their vocabulary has grown larger, their behavior has not grown as quickly. So don’t just think your kid is a brat. Your kid is just figuring out what it means to be mobile, how to deal with being able to communicate, and how to deal with feelings.

So how do you solve it? You don’t. You stay consistent in your methods of discipline. You clearly communicate results of their bad behavior and you follow through with the punishment. Remember, you have as much experience with toddler tantrums as your child does. For every time your kid throws one, you have dealt with it. Just stay the course."