My angel had the hiccups yesterday. From early morning till late afternoon. It was a long, hot day and around 4 pm, Isabel threw a tantrum. She's 5 1/2 so they are pretty rare nowadays...but this was an all-out, 10 pointer. I was proud of her ability to put it all out there. Not often you see what fourteen years old will be like so early on.
In the middle of the tantrum, when it seemed like eardrums might pop, I went for tantrum stopper number 2 (TS2). (TS1 is to send her to hang out by herself, in her room, until she has control...and then she can come out. This usually works in less than a minute, since she doesn't want to cry all by herself.) TS2 is engaged when the tantrum lasts more than 5 minutes. If she hasn't stopped crying and screaming by 5 minutes, I know that another Mummy strategy needs to come into play.
TS2 involves going over to my child, looking her straight in the eye and telling her we are going to have a conversation. I gently help her get up, walk her into the living room and then gather her into my arms for a cuddle and "good cry." Now TS2 does NOT work if you use it before TS1...it would simply cause her to tantrum in my arms for 5 + minutes. TS2 is the strategy of last resort.
In this case, she was crying and hiccupping. And it didn't look like she was going to stop. So I calmly said, "Isabel, it's time to stop crying now." And with a look of utter distress, she said, "But Mummy, I can't stop HICKING UP!"
And I said (trying not to laugh), "You can't stop HICKING UP?"
And she said, "No Mummy! I can't stop HICKING UP!!!"
And very quietly, and very respectfully (because I have great respect for the tantrum wizards), I said, "Do you mean...HICCUPPING?"
She stared at me. And we both cracked up. And cracked up again.
End of tantrum. New word for our family.
Hicking up.
2 comments:
cute story! did it stop her hiccuping?
Yes, indeed! The tantrum and the hiccups! Thanks for stopping by!
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