Diffusing a Toddler’s Meltdown

Tonight I did something good, on accident. It was one of those things that ‘parent enthusiasts’ would read in a How to Raise Your Kids book.

Rachelle and I spent most of the day packing our house to move, so there are bins scattered throughout the living room. Layla sees these bins as nifty blocks provided for her climbing pleasure.

It was getting late; probably around 9pm. Layla climbed on a bin and stood up. I corrected her and hit her with a firm “no” (I’ll bet you thought I was going to say ‘left hook’), and lifted her off the bin and onto the floor. She did the ’spaghetti leg’ thing and collapsed to the ground like a puddle of ooze. Then, she straightened every limb and muscle in her body, and stood up. The transition from putty to cast iron was almost cartoonish. She took her pacifier out of her mouth and hurled it across the room as an act of defiance.

Not because I did my parenting homework, or because I know what the hell I’m doing, but I instantly darted across the room, grabbed the pacifier, and threw it back to her side of the room. I don’t know where the energy came from…because it didn’t hit me until I was about three strides in: “Why the hell are you skipping around like a sprite?”

But something happened. Layla was dumbfounded. Most likely it was a combination of someone defusing the situation by showing her that her throwing isn’t an effective way of expressing her anger, and also the sheer sight of watching a grown man sprinting through the house and throwing a pacifier at her.

After a few seconds of being frozen. She ran to the pacifier and threw it back to me…but SMILED. It turned into a game. In a matter of seconds, she went from being borderline hellish to laughing hysterically at a game. She forgot all about the bin that she was forbidden to stand on.

Again, I have no idea what I’m doing but tonight I kept my kid from danger and turned a negative situation into a positive. If I can do that until she’s 20 I’ll be in good shape.