Holy Temper Tantrum Batman

I thought it was supposed to be the terrible two's, not the terrible three's?

Abby has always been a really good kid.  Sure, she makes mistakes and gets timeouts and such.  But, overall, I think she is an amazingly well behaved child.  The biggest reason for this is that we don't let her get away with much (yeah, we're THOSE parents that kids always complain to their friends about when they're older).  It's sad to say, but everyday at school I see the result of poor parenting.  Kids that completely disrespect authority figures, don't care about anything but themselves, etc.  It's insane.  I promised myself that would never be my kid.

A few weeks ago, we saw Abby's first true temper tantrum.  It's only gotten worse since them, on average a bad one every day or two.

Tonight, Peggy found a caterpillar at the gym.  She put it in her shoe and surprised Abby with it at school.  Abby was overjoyed.  They found a jar at home and showed it to me when I got home.  We brought the jar inside at dinner so I could poke some holes in the top.  Abby was carrying it around, so Peggy asked her to put it on the counter (it was a glass jar and she didn't want her to drop it).  Abby told her that she just wanted to hold it.  So, Peggy told her to do it a couple more times.  She still refused.  Peggy told her to either put it on the counter or we would put the jar outside.  Abby refused.  Peggy told her again.  And again she refused.  So, Peggy said "ok, it's going outside."  Abby tried to put it up on the counter, but we told her it was too late.  She already had too many chances.  Abby started screaming.  I told her that if she didn't stop, we were going to let the caterpillar go completely instead of just putting the jar outside.  She continued to scream.  So, I told Peggy to get rid of the caterpillar.  Abby flipped out.  I sent her to timeout.

She sat in timeout for a few minutes, and then apologized.  I thought all was well.  Little did I know, the worst was by far yet to come.  She pouted for a few minutes, saying "I miss my caterpillar, he's my new friend."  I kept cooking dinner.

Ten or so minutes later, Peggy was going upstairs with Noah to do something.  She asked Abby if she wanted to go upstairs with her.  She was still emotional about the caterpillar and started crying because Peggy was leaving (even though she could've gone with her).  Peggy asked her again, and she just kept crying.  So, she told her to stay downstairs.  Then, Abby apparently changed her mind and wanted to go upstairs.  But, Peggy had already told her to stay downstairs (we're very good about not changing our minds once we've told her something just because she argues/cries).  That's when I came into the room.  Peggy started going upstairs, and Abby started to follow.  Peggy yelled at her to go back downstairs, and she refused.  I came over to grab Abby and bring her back downstairs.  She started SPRINTING up the stairs.  Seriously, I didn't know the kid could run that fast, let alone going up stairs that fast.  I screamed at her, and she just crawled up faster.  I grabbed her off of the stairs, and she started kicking and screaming the most shrill scream I've ever heard from her (she just started this kicking the floor/air thing in the last couple weeks, don't know where she learned that from, but I'm guessing daycare).  I put her in timeout and she went crazy.

I went back to cooking dinner.  She sat a good 10 minutes in timeout (she usually only gets 3).  I talked to her and she was pretty sorry for throwing a fit (or as sorry as a 3 year old can really be).  I told her that she lost all her privileges for the night (no dessert, no book at bed, and she would spend the rest of the night sitting on the couch).  Yeah, I went for the night on the couch thing.  It was kind of a last minute addition because I knew no dessert and no book didn't do this temper tantrum justice.  So, she went to say sorry to mommy and then straight to the couch.  And I must say, it worked out pretty well.  She sat in there with her books the rest of the night.  She did get to come down for dinner and a potty break.  But, other than that, she was on the couch for an hour and a half or so.

We had several more discussions while she was on the couch about her behavior.  She kept promising that "tomorrow, I won't lose my privilege."  She as pretty good the rest of the night, and went to bed with no problems.

It's so weird, because she is so good 99.9% of the time.  She is good with please's and thank you's and just being polite.  She's such a good kid, but holy cow, and she doesn't get her way in some fashion, she goes crazy lately.

We're hoping this is a short lived problem and our consistency will win out sooner rather than later.