Elfrieda - posted on 06/11/2011 ( 5 moms have responded )
2,620
0
My 17-month-old son is a sweet little cutiepie - as long as you're in his face all the time!
If I want to prepare food, read something, clean the house, talk to other people, etc, he screams and cries and ends up on the floor weeping into his own feet.
If I spend the entire day making eye contact with him, or better yet, carrying the little elephant (27 lbs - ow my back) he is the most cheerful child I have ever seen. Smart, pleasant, and entertaining.
Turn my back and he's throwing toys, hanging off my pantleg, crying, etc. He can probably play alone for 15 minutes before being done for the day. Thank goodness he takes a long nap so I get some time to get stuff done!
Nobody sees how bad it is because when we're out, people are paying attention to him and he's happy.
My question is: Is this a normal stage? How should I deal with a tantrum when the reason for the tantrum is that I'm not paying attention to him? He doesn't care about toys nearly as much as he cares about people, so just leading him to a toy doesn't work. He has never cried when I took a toy away, because he'd rather be with a person than a toy. (probably not a bad trait for when he grows up)
I don't want to create a brat, but I don't want to ignore my baby, either. What should I do?
5 Comments
View replies by