My little girl turned 2 in January. I can honestly say I have seen a big difference in her attitude in the last 2-3 mos. I thought she was already in the "terrible 2's" at 18 mos. Boy was I wrong! Shes like Jeckyl and Hyde.
She can change in 2 seconds and the crying can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Some days are better but fewer. Saturday she started a "throwing up tantrum", yesterday was what I call a "everything sets her off day".
She wants it her way or thats it. I'm not giving in to M&M's for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do ya'll cope?
I hope she's better by the time I have baby#2 in September.

Mimib - I feel your pain! My daughter turned 2 in April and WOW at the difference! My once happy-go-lucky (although head-strong) child now turns in to a Holy Terror at the drop of a hat. This weekend she got a cupcake (we had a Mother's Day Party with the grands a little early)...we made the grave mistake of taking the wrapper off! Melt down for a good 15 minutes.
We're also expecting baby #2 in the fall and are hoping for improvement before then.
I don't know how to tell you to deal with it since we're still trying to figure it out, but what's worked best for us so far is to literally ignore her. If we "punish" her for the tantrum it makes it far worse. If we try to make her happy we very rarely succeed. But if we tell her that "we're sorry you're unhappy but mommy's not going to watch you act ugly" and then leave the room she seems to get over it a little quicker. We do stay close enough by that if something happened to her we would realize it though.
Good luck to you and I'll keep you in my thoughts!

Girl, we have got to get together. I see so many momma's with docile and demure little girls. When I see this, I am like, "could I really take Lilly to a play group?" They would throw us out. My little Lilly may have a kindred spirit in your daughter!

I am so glad you started this discussion. With my boys, people would joke about terrible 2's all the time, they would say, "Oh, it's coming" but it never really did.

With miss thing, it is a whole other story. I too have seen a difference in her the past couple of months. She is starting a little early, she won't be 2 until June.

Your M&M story plays out here too. Lilly is getting where all she wants is chocolate and M&M's (who can really blame a girl ). I agree; we have to persevere and be strong and not let them rule the roost despite their efforts.

Ladies out there, give us advice, help. And someone, please tell us this ends and gets better.

hehe, mine won't be 2 until December and she is already in that stage...........everything she wants.......especially food......it's "mama I do it" and if you don't let her do it.......she thinks the whole world has ended........I usually let mine throw her tantrums for a while to let her know she is not getting her way.....she eventually stops and goes about her way playing........she too is an M&M mini freak!!! I think really it's anything chocolate......... but I never give her much.....if I let her have her way I think chocolate is all she would eat.Her new favorite is watermelon though........at least it's a fruit!!!

my daughter is 2 1/2 and she really isn't into the terrible two's yet. she does have her days where she is whinney and crying but i just tell her if she doesn't stop she's getting a time out. and if the threat of time out doesn't work i put her in it until she stops crying. even if it's longer than the recomended 2 minutes for her age.
my realy problem is grocery shopping. she hates to sit in the cart and i can't just let her run wild in the store. so when she cryes in the cart i just ignore her. or today when it started happening i told her i loved her pouty crying face and that made her stop real fast.

Ahh...the terrible 2's! Been there and still there! My oldest didn't really have the terrible 2's, for her it was the terrible 3's. In comparison to my youngest, hers wasn't even all that bad! She would cry and have a minor meltdown, but we were able to get her calm pretty quickly. She hated getting in trouble, and still doesn't like it.

My youngest, on the other hand, started the terrible stage early. That was one of the reasons I became a SAHM again. She was 18 mos and in daycare. The evenings became battles. She spent most of the day at the daycare; and for some reason, when she got home, her attitude was terrible. It didn't happen all the time, but several times. We didn't have any problem with the daycare itself; I think it was just her. She seemed to enjoy daycare, and for the most part she behaved herself there. At home, when she wouldn't get her way, she would start crying and pitching a fit. She even started laying on the floor kicking and screaming. I don't know if she had just reached her limit of "goodness" at daycare and had to lose it on us or what. Or if she was seeing other kids act that way. Whatever the reason, that was one of the deciding factors for me to resign from my job and stay home with her.

She still has tantrums occasionally, but not nearly as bad. She's so stubborn (I say like father, like daughter ). We, too tried a lot of different things. Of course, getting on to her and such. Sometimes I would just ignore her. Sometimes I would just carry her to bed and close the gate on her room. I would tell her that she has to stay in there by herself until she calms down and we can talk about it. She has a favorite baby doll that she always has with her. So, sometimes I've even taken the doll away and told her that baby Suzy (that's what she calls her doll) was going to have a timeout until she (my daughter) calms down. We've tried "strict" tones in voices and calm soothing tones when we talk to her during a tantrum. All in all, nothing worked all the time. Regardless of the method, sometimes she would calm down fast and sometimes not.

Now that she is getting closer to turning 3, she is getting better about her tantrums. Oh, I forgot to mention one other thing that I did. This may be what has gotten her better or it may just be that she is getting older. Once during a tantrum, I videoed her. Afterwards, when she was calm, I showed her the video. As we watched, I would say things like, "see what your fit looks like", "hear how noisy you are", "see how ugly that is", etc. Then I took her to the mirror, showed her herself, and told her that "this is my beautiful, sweet Savannah. This is my favorite Savannah, this is nice to look at. That crying Savannah is not nice to look at." She even said that she didn't like that movie. I played it for her a couple more times when she had a fit, and she would say that she didn't like it. I haven't had to play it in awhile. She's not fixed, she still has occasionally meltdowns; but I don't know if it was watching herself or the fact that she is maturing a little that made her tantrums decrease. Now, I try to reason with her (hahaha). Seriously, I'm trying to get her to understand that when she behaves well and acts sweet, she can do fun things. But when she pitches a fit, then she doesn't get to. She's starting to understand a little. She'll say things like, "I want to go to storytime, so I'm gonna be sweet."

I think you just find something that works and stick with it. The battles will end (and then when they're teens, round 2 starts) eventually. In the beginning, it was almost a constant battle; but now it's not so much. Since she has gotten better and not having as many tantrums, I'm really hoping that we're about done with it. But, like I said earlier, she is stubborn!

Tricia thanks for your great reply! Your father like daughter part -cracked me up!

I think that is what is going on at my house too-lol.

I really wonder if this is a stage Lillian is going through, or this is just who Lillian is. Only time will tell. I hope she will blossom into someone more consistently sweeter?

Well, it's nice to know I'm not alone. Thanks for the tips and advice. Sometimes when we do go out like to the mall and she starts crying and screaming, people look at us like "OMG can't they control that kid." I feel like getting t-shirts made that say...your kid did this too. haha
I guess we'll just wait, pray and start drinking more till this passes. haha just kidding.
Anymore advice or when do they seem to grow out of this let me know. thanks

tricia i love the taping and playing it back idea. if brooke starts having tantrums i'll have to try this. i think it shocks children to actually see what they look like.

mimib...I think you have a money making business in those T-shirts. My daughter will be 3 next month, and I'm hoping the "Terrible Two's" will just automatically stop. hehe

I also have that child that I'm afraid to take to play with other people's children. She's really a loving and sensitive child, but wants everything her way. And the attitude...yesterday I asked her to come into the kitchen to get her juice because I was washing dishes and she said "I'm doing something Mommy, you do it!" HA!

And, she wants cereal every meal!

Maybe it's wrong, but sometimes I get on the floor with her and "join" in her tantrums...she just looks at me and I tell her "That's what you look like, too". WOrks about 10% of the time. hehehe

My two boys never went through the TT's, so I was totally unprepared for my grandson/child!! He turned two 04/08, but entered TT's at 18 months! I may not survive this stage!! And my husband, Poppi, is no help at all, as he just can't stand to hear "poor Hayden" suffer!! I'm thinking about putting "Poppi" in long term timeout!

ja2003wow, your post gave me a good giggle with Poppi needing a time out I hope this stage will improve for us all, the sooner the better!

You know what I noticed...just about everyone who responded has a little GIRL!!! Oh no is this worse with girls than boys? haha

mimib, I noticed that too, all girls, then ja2003wow mentioned her grandson Hayden to be the first boy on the "2 list". With the ease of my boys, I was starting to wonder too,lol. I know my sis had a rough time with my nephew. she has 2 girls and the boy. He was the worse I think.

As I said, I raised two boys & neither had the TT's, but Hayden seems to be the exception to the rule! Last night was one of those where he went to bed, got a little shut-eye in & then thought we should entertain him all night long! Poppi & Nanny are worn out this morning & he's still having his TT issues!! I'm fairly sure that I will NOT survive this phase!!