We all have rough days, but 44 tantrums in one day is a new record. From our friends at Babyology [1], read about the hilarious and rational problems that were worth crying about for this 3-year-old!
Have a threenager at home? Please, pull up a chair, pour a glass of wine, and enjoy these completely reasonable reasons my 3-year-old daughter cracked it today. Yes . . . all of these outbursts happened in a 24-hour period. I wish I was making this up.
My daughter's favorite pastime these days is to yell at me. Today, rather than simply struggle through the daily tantrums and tears, I decided to track them. Every time my daughter whined, cried, screamed, kicked, or lay on the floor with her feet in the air, I wrote it down.
My daughter discovered 44 problems worth crying about. And almost half of them occurred before 9 a.m.
- She wanted to wear her Elsa shirt (which is in the dirty clothes pile).
- She put her underwear on backwards.
- I put the wrong episode of Strawberry Shortcake on.
- I didn't get her breakfast quickly enough.
- She didn't want cereal. She wanted oats.
- I gave her the wrong bowl for her oats. She wanted the bowl that her uneaten cereal was in.
- She spilled oats on her knee.
- She wanted the small spoon.
- I gave her the yellow blanket instead of the pink blanket.
- She wanted to wear her Elsa dress [2] instead of her Elsa shirt.
- It's not her birthday today.
- Her seat belt felt funny.
- Her brother [3] looked at her in the car.
- The cat wouldn't let her pick him up by the tail.
- She couldn't open the wrapper to her muesli bar.
- I opened the wrapper to her muesli bar too much.
- Her muesli bar broke in two.
- When coloring in, I used the wrong color of blue for Cinderella's dress.
- I sat on her imaginary friend.
- She put her shoes on the wrong feet.
- Peppa Pig ended.
- I cut her sandwich into triangles [4].
- I cut her second sandwich into squares.
- I wouldn't let her play in the car.
- I suggested we take a nap.
- She dropped her hat on the road.
- I didn't let her answer the phone.
- I sat on the wrong side of the couch.
- It started to rain.
- I had to cook dinner.
- Her brother talked to her.
- She spilled her water.
- I used the red towel to clean it up. I should have used the pink one.
- I had a shower without her.
- I helped her brother with his homework.
- She lost her doll's pink shoe.
- I asked her to take a bath.
- I asked her to get out of the bath.
- The towel felt itchy.
- Her brother got his pajamas on quicker than she did.
- I turned the page of her bedtime story incorrectly.
- Teddy fell off the bed.
- I didn't tickle her arm properly.
- I yawned.
The next time your toddler screams the house down because you didn't cut his sandwich right, just remember, there is a whole world of moms and dads out there, cutting the crusts off their triangle sandwiches and silently cursing the skies for this difficult stage in parenting [5].
Please, share the completely illogical reasons your toddler lost it today so I can revel in the fact I am not alone.
And let's prepare to do it all over again tomorrow. Because even the worst of tantrums [6] can be erased with a simple cuddle, kiss, and "I love you, Mommy."