Originally Posted by Dude
Originally Posted by Mom2KC
I am just waiting for the day it dawns on her that her melt downs get her no where.

Someone else in another thread made a useful distinction between a tantrum and a meltdown, which bears mentioning here. A tantrum is a ploy, and a meltdown is an excessive but natural emotional response. A tantrum is about obtaining something, where a meltdown usually has no goal. Tantrums are easily controlled, where meltdowns are characterized by complete loss of control (like the analogous nuclear event).

It's a necessary distinction because the strategies for dealing with both are very different.


They start because she wants something..or usually because she doesn't want to stop doing something.. she breaks down and the only way to calm her is to send her to her room to cry it out.. talking does nothing she just screams over my voice, and if I don't take her to her room she will throw her fit "on me" like pulling my shirt or hitting or kicking my arms or legs. Once in her room she cries it out crying, yelling, and banging on her door for anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour. After her fit is over she is very receptive, I can talk to her, she listens, she is very sweet and accepts her punishment without a fuss (which is a revoked privilege) and then is usually very well behaved for either the rest of the day or the next few hours. She acts like she has no control but she must have some degree of control since she only does this with me. I don't understand it, she has told me that when she gets like that she "can't stop"

Last edited by Mom2KC; 07/11/12 08:42 AM.