My Grandson's Meltdowns Are Wearing Us Out!

I'm with you Tuesday! I had 6 children and none of them dared pull the tantrum crap on me, I niether had the time or patience to put up with it. I have One grandchild, 5 years old. She's very sweet and precious until she hears the word 'no' or is disciplined in any way then she goes into a cring screaming mode that can last 5 to 10 minutes. I will not take my grandaughter anywhere anymore till she stops behaving this way. I won't even take her through a drive thru at McDonalds! I'm sick of parents (hers included) who do not teach there children how to behave! I love my grandaughter dearly but she is an out of control BRAT!

Intermittent Explosive Disorder, huh. It is time we stopped giving diagnoses for bad behavior.

"intermittent Explosive Disorder" is just another one of those fancy cop-out ways of denying that the kid is an out of control brat! When I was a kid and when my kids were younger- my youngest just yurned 16, we didn't rely on doctors to come up with politically correct words for children being out of control due to lack of 'real discipline!' None of my children behaved badly they were disciplined and throwing a tantrum was not tolerated.

I love it, IED, short for BRAT! Does everything have to be a syndrome, or can't it just be bad parenting or bratty kids?

Oh, heaven forbid. You can't spank a child when there are so many letters in the alphabet to describe his behaviour. You want to know why there are so many kids like this nowadays. To many hacks pushing disorders. Everything is a disorder.

Exactly!! SPANK HIS BEHIND! Once you do that, you notice that those behaviors aren't repeated. I did it with my child when he was young and it straightened him out quick. It got to the point where if he saw another kid acting out, he'd look at me expecting me to do something. My nieces and nephews behave with me because they know Auntie disciplines. I don't beat, I don't slap, I don't abuse. A couple of hand spanks on the behind will work wonders! After that, then all you'll need is THE LOOK.

RCS is right. As a child I had a tantrum in a public place, my mother removed me and applied her riding crop firmly. I never did it again.

What a bunch of crap! These kids are spoiled brats who need a good smack and punishment. Stop labeling these brats with all these BS labels like adhd, add, autistic, etc., and give them what my parents gave me and my brother---good old fashion discipline. We never threw tantrums or disobeyed our parents after one good whipping. We both grew up to become police officers.

I used spanking for a while, but after a while it didn't work and I was tired of getting the glare from people who really didn't know waht was going on. I started using push-ups for punishment. It works great still to this day with a 14 and 10 y/o. They don't like having to do push-ups in public, so they rarely act out.

I am constantly amazed at the parents who let their kids walk all over them, and when they're screaming or "acting out" in public places, just politely say "no" or try to reason softly to an uncontrollable CHILD as if they're apologizing or are scared of them. KIDS NEED BOUNDARIES!! And, yes, they are "smart" (it seems every parent who has a bratty child explains to others being harassed by their behaviour that "the child is very gifted". These kids are so smart that they know how to play their parents, and the parents have no clue. I remember one time on a flight from New York to Denver, I was sitting in front of a loverly little girl who decided to play Chinese Water Torture, by kicking my seat until I would turn around and give her the LOOK. Meanwhile, her father was sitting two seats away from her, and was aware of the whole thing. After about three episodes of her brattiness, I got up looked at the father, and said "If you don't stop her from doing this, I'm going to slap YOU!!!" I had a wonderful flight. Yes, kids need to be taught, but they also need to be taught RESPECT for others, and they need to know there are consequences for their actions, and everything they do is NOT cute. And, as an adult, I don't have to empathize with a child who is spoiling my dinner or church service while it's throwing some tirade and the parents fearfully watch on and try to placate the little darling.

Righton Stew

rcstew15, my mother whipped me regularly when I was little. It did nothing to curb my rebelliousness. In fact, it made me vicious and devious. You do not know what you are talking about. I've grown up with an absolute disrespect for authority of any kind, except my own. My daughter was exactly like me. You could beat her all day long and she would laugh in your face. I'm raising my granddaughter now and she is just as tough. With her, I have found that stopping the behavior instantly by anticipating it, confronting her anger with a question, "Doesn't it feel awful to be angry?" Well, it doesn't take a child too long to learn that we DO have control over our own reactions to circumstance. Also, I've brought it to her attention a little later, when she was no longer angry, that she was angry a little while ago, but not now. Where did the anger go? These kind of questions really made her think and the tantrums stopped almost immediately after a few of these incidents. She was empowered to be in control of herself instead of Grandma imposing control. Isn't it all about teaching a child SELF control? And not because they are afraid of you, but because they respect and love you, AND themself?

Exactly--blister his ass,and stop coddling little brats.

My 3 1/2 year old is quite the personality. He even has the evil look. I tried everything when he has a meltdown from reasoning, ignoring, yelling and even spanking. It does nothing to change it. He's as stubborn as his mother. lol. I try to not let him get me upset becuase I do not want to discipline him when I'm angry. Growing up my parents used to beat my brother and it broke his spirit. He's a drug addict in jail and blames his miserable existence on my parents. I can't say that he's not right. I was a good kid and I still got spanked. It only made me angry. I wasn't an angry kid but as I got older I got resentful and very angry. As an adult I have my anger issues because of that, so I only spank his bottom when he is completely out of control. I know that there is a fine line when you spank your child. Every child is different and I guess you have to gauge what works best for your child.

Well, as a former teacher I learned that when you can put a "label" on the child's bad behaviour you can explain away why you are not a good parent. No parent wants to look bad. It is time parents stood up and took control of their children. I don't believe spanking is always the way to go, but when they are little, they have no reasoning power and you have to be it. When these children that are just taken away from something that makes them mad are not learning to control their selves. I am an adovate of spanking when children are little...now, this is not beating a child. But there needs to be enough pain applied to the bottom so they will think what will happen if they act this way again. As a Christian I stronly believe that when children are little, they are parent controled, then they go to self-controled and then God controled. Children have to learn how to control themselves and that is what parents are there for. I have 3 adult children, and I can tell you that none of them ever threw a fit in public. This was not allowed at home, so they knew it was never allowed in public. Now, I have 1 out of the 3 that raise their children according to the Bible and they are great kids. I have a daughter with 4 kids and you can't wait to see them go. My dad said he would never take them out to eat again. This one daughter told my mother one day that we hated her kids, and my mother explained to her that we all love her kids, but could not stand their behaviour. When you spank a little tush a couple of times, get down and look them eye to eye and let them know this behaviour is unacceptable, and if this happens again, the same thing will happen. The Bible says this is a parent that loves their children. Children are a gift from the Lord, but parents that won't take control make them the kids from hell!

Yes!!! Somebody FINALLY advocating a beat down!!!

What happened to physical discipline? What moron came up with the idea that if you "use the rod", your child will be irrepairably harmed for life? If the child doesn't know what happens when they cross boundaries, they're more likely to continue to push them. I have two daughters, one grown and one who's a pre-teen. They knew what was up and NEVER threw tantrums.

Parents/Grandparents: stop trying to be that kids BFF. Tap that booty. Get those legs. Remind your children who's the man. Even Proverbs 23:13 says "do not hold back discipline from the mere boy. In case you beat him with the rod, he will not die." See? God said it, too!!!

And we wonder why there is such a problem with violence and domestic abuse today? Hit them! They will shut up instead of taking the time to parent correctly. This is a great lesson we are teaching our children.