I have a soon to be 3 year old daughter that whines and throws a fit non stop for almost any reason daily… She does not do it to anyone but Mommy and Daddy. Not at daycare, not with grandma, etc. It may be over wanting a popsickle, wanting to watch a certain cartoon that happens to not be on at the time, going outside to play, you name it. It is fake and sometimes real-ish crying and whining with repeated yelling demands of whatever the issue is at the time(ie: “wahhhh, wahhhh, POP-SICK-LE!!….POP-SICK-LE!!”…..then a quicker “popsickle!!, wahhhh, wahhhhh” etc).

I am now simply taking her to her room and explaining that she can come out when she is done throwing the fit and shutting the door, sometimes it takes 30 minutes or longer but she is slowly beginning to understand that I am serious and that she cannot come out until she is calm and reasonable. It has been blood-boiling at times dealing with the constant fits. I feel your pain and I hope that I am seeing the dim light at the end of the whining, fit throwing tunnel…

Sometimes, I can sternly raise my voice and say NO. and he will stop doing it… but other times, nothing gets him to quit. He’s not hurt, he’s not really got any reason to cry, he just does it. Forget rabbits… let’s ban the whiners/cryers!? This behavior has got to stop.

In the past, I’d lose my cookie whenever she started up the sirens. The screams would make me think horrible things, but thankfully, my wife’s got loads more patience for her crap than I do (which sometimes I agree with and sometimes I don’t) so she handles the kid when I can’t take any more. There’s been times that I’ve just set her in her crib for several minutes because I couldn’t deal with the screaming and fussing.

I guess I must have gotten used to the whining over time, as before I didn’t know WHY she was whining, but I’ve found that once I can figure out the cause of the whine, it doesn’t bother me as much. For example, crying out of the blue can be infuriating, but once you realize that the klutz smashed her toe on the coffee table, or she’s sleepy or hungry, you go into “need fulfillment mode” and try to fix the problem. For example, sometimes she gets into “whine for attention” mode, so I just pick her up and try to make her laugh. Once she feels better, I can set her back down again and she’ll run off to get into more trouble.

I found that it helps to think of the happy times you’ve had together to kind of pacify your anger when they go nuts.

I have only been blessed thus far with one child. And mine is a grade A, top-of-the-line whiner (recently turned four).

I have the Captain Hook Clock too. I can feel it coming on when I have that sensation of bugs crawling up my spine. The same sensation I get when someone runs their fingernails down a blackboard.

In public: I try not to take him to many places. What works for me is pointing out the black dome of the security cameras. “See that? It’s a camera. The manager of the store is watching everyone. He/she sees attitude from a customer, and you’ll be asked to leave.”

I don’t know why this works. And I don’t care. I think it might just be the fact that: 1. there is a camera in the ceiling and 2. how does it work?

At home, when the Captain isn’t tired, having a migraine, or stressed out (thereby giving in to yelling), I look at him and tell him to get back with me when he’s done “bellyaching” and I walk into another room. Most of the time within a minute, he’s coming up to me saying, “Mommy, I’m done bellyaching now, can you please…”

Funny story…right before Christmas, DH picked the kiddo up from daycare. He was met at the door by the teacher who said:

“We had some attitude today. He didn’t want to participate in the activity, and was being disruptive to those who were wanting to participate. I told him he could either do the activity without harassing others, or go sit in time out. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “No, I choose to have a fit.” He proceeded to throw himself onto the floor, kicking and screaming. This lasted about 15 seconds, when he abruptly turned the attitude off, got up and said, “Okay, I’m done now.” He went to the table, sat down, and worked on the project.”

Alrighty then.