Give Tantrums Back to Toddlers

My mother tells me I threw my first temper tantrum when I was three.  It was bed time, and I wanted to stay up.  She said “No,” and I peacefully started towards the stairs.  Suddenly, she says, I stopped.  My face lit up, my eyes got real wide as the wheels churned inside my head, and then I threw myself to ground and did my best imitation of what she assumes I’d seen earlier that day in the grocery store.  She got up, said, “If you’re going to act that way, I’m leaving,” and hurried outside before she burst out laughing.

I believe we need to stop rewarding people who throw temper tantrums, whatever their age.  No longer relegated to the realm of toddlers, I see temper tantrums being used as a tool of manipulation on a regular basis.  Because the people throwing these fits get their way, they continue to act in childish and unseemly manners.  My mother taught me to never reward a temper tantrum, and that’s a lesson I believe needs to be applied more broadly in the world.