Tempertantrums

You have my sympathy; 2 year olds give their parents plenty of challenges. One thing that helped me deal with tantrums was realizing that, at age 2, children haven't yet developed the skill needed to control their emotions. Although most children will outgrow tantrums on their own there are ways you can get the phase to end sooner in my experience. 1) Don't ever give into anything you wouldn't otherwise approve of because of a tantrum (I'm sure you're not doing that, but I know it's tempting sometimes) 2) Accept that tantrums are inevitable at this age, and figure out a way to keep yourself calm. I used to keep a book in the car, for tantrums that happened while we were driving. I'd just pull over and tell my child that I couldn't drive with so much noise, so I'd just wait until they calmed down. 3)Offer help to help them calm themselves down, if they want it. My daughter would settle down very quickly, if I offered to cuddle, read a favorite book or sing a song. My son preferred to have some space. 4)Do what you can to prevent a tantrum. They're more common when children are hungry, overtired, or have been dragged around on too many errands. They're more likely to pick some random thing to get upset about, so they can let off all the emotion that's been building up insdie them. 5)Once they get old enough to understand there are other more acceptable way to show displeasure, you can walk away and say, "I'll be happy to talk to you, as soon as you're ready to use a nice voice". 6)Teach them words for emotions whenever you have a chance. I was surprised that my son was able to say "I'm frustrated or disappointed at age 2" in situations where he might have otherwise had a tantrum. He'd learned them, by overhearing me discuss them with my older daughter. Good luck in getting through the phase quickly. I found that on any given issue, I usually only had to endure a tantrum once, and tantrums in general were only really bad for a few weeks around age 2 1/2. This is an age where they want a lot of independence, and really start to experiment with what's allowed and what isn't.