Hissy Fit = Timeout

I have always heard parents talk about the terrible two's. I really thought that it was just an expression. Madie has always been a happy go lucky, go with the flow child and she rarely gets upset or fusses.

However, over the past few weeks she has developed quit the personality and when she doesn't get her way or doesn't like or approve of something you are doing or somewhere we are going she will loose it and have a meltdown. By this I mean grunt, whine or cry (sometimes all three) and kick her feet and make it impossible for you to wrangle her up to carry her. I have always heard that these episodes are called hissy fits. Well, she has learned to pitch one and she is not even two yet.

I don't have a manual on parenting and I pretty much learn as I go. But I knew that I was going to have to put a stop to some of these episodes before she really got good at them and they became more frequent. So, I began to remember all of those episodes of Super Nanny that I have watched.

I decided that I was going to give "timeout" a try and see what happened. I wasn't sure if she was old enough to understand the concept yet...but then I thought sure she will, she's much smarter and understands much more than I think she does. So, the next time she had a hissy fit I picked her up, put her in the spot that I had designated for "timeout", told her why I put her there and told her to sit there until I told her that she could get up. At first her fit intensified, but after a few seconds she was calm and just sat there. I walked into another room to see what she would do and she continued to just sit there. She listened, she understood, it worked! After 2 minutes I went back and told her to give me a hug and that I loved her and she was fine.

She's been in "timeout" several times in the past week but today the mere mention of it stopped her in her tracks. She wanted no part of it.

Maybe this "timeout" thing really works. But what am I going to do when we are in the car or at the grocery store and a hissy fit occurs? I guess I will figure that out later.