What parent does not find him or her having to deal with power struggles and temper tantrums at some point or another? For some of us, there are certain children who seem more likely to have the fits and temper tantrums, where for other children; it seems to be more age-related. What you might not have considered, however, is whether your child’s moods and behavior problems are actually tied to certain times of the day?
Surely you have discovered that your child might be one of many who gets cranky at the end of the day—when he is hungry and tired and over-stimulated. This might make dinner time or the end of the evening particularly trying in the behavior department. But there are some kids who have a hard time waking up and are more likely to have temper tantrums in the mornings—balking at getting dressed or resisting to being pushed and rushed. There might be others who have a mid-day melt-down and need a rest time or nap in the middle of the day to combat the tendency to be grumpy or aggressive.
Figuring out if your child’s behaviors are affected by certain times of the day—if she is more prone to happiness or crabbiness depending on what time of the day it is—can be a good way of not only getting to know your child’s personality better, but of also figuring out how you can avoid and combat those temper tantrums and behavior issues.
You might consider keeping a simple chart or writing in a journal for a couple weeks in order to look for any sort of patterns in your child’s “bad times” to see if they might be related to the time of day. You can then consider whether they happen close to or after meal times, when the child has just woken up or gotten done doing something particularly strenuous. Any clues you can gather that will help you change the temper tantrums and challenging behavior can be well worth the effort.
Also: Expecting Transitions
Kids Who Wake up Crabby or Crying