Thanks in advance for feedback. jim

Shannon!!! Thank you, this is exactly what my 2 and a half year old is going through. At lunch, here do you want applesauce, no applesauce, ok fine, YES, YES applesauce. Gets in trouble for hitting 1 year old sister, I come to talk to him, No Spank, Mama No Spank. I am not going to spank, you need to go say sorry to sissy and make sure she is ok. Yes spank, yes spank mama. Here is your car, No i don’t want cars, ok fine, yes yes cars. I am losing my mind. I have tried holding my ground and sticking through the battle, I have tried allowing him to change his mind. But it has been about 2 weeks of this nonsense and I need a different tactic.

Thank you so much. I have not read that one until now.

Thank you, Sara. I’d hug you back! Yes, sometimes we do have to pick our children up and help move them forward. The key is to approach these situations with Mama Bear love and confidence, rather than with the slightest annoyance, frustration or anger. Have you read this post? https://www.janetlansbury.com/2016/07/confident-momentum-how-to-stop-battling-your-toddlers-resistance-and-defiance/

Scenario 1. My two year old wants to eat a peach. I tell her we don’t have any peaches but she can have an apple or a plum. She continues to yell, ‘NO, Peach!’ then cries and screams. I usually say something like ‘I know you want a peach, they are very yummy but we only have apples and plums’.

Scenario 2- 2 year old is playing with her baby doll and wants a blanket for it. I take her to our blanket stash but every blanket is ‘too big.’ By now she is beside herself because she isn’t happy with any blanket. I literally show her every item that could be used as a blanket from a square of toilet paper, a hanky, a tea towel and an actual blanket but this seems to add to her frustration. I end up saying something like, ‘ok, no more playing with baby doll as it is making you very frustrated” and we then leave the actually. I am not sure what else I should do.

Please tell me this is somewhat normal. Any advice would be appreciated.

Oh, this is so helpful for me because my two year old is exactly the same. We often go back and forth with the “take it away”, “no, don’t take it” scenarios at meal times (as well as the “yes shoes”, “no shoes” example plus many others) and I need to remember to not be afraid to let her do what she needs to do – scream- even if it is at an inconvenient moment. Hard when there is a baby in the house too but I’m sure that’s contributing to the behaviour!