Temper Tantrum Common Sense Handbook

Hillel Kuttler of Baltimore, Maryland, says when his son “Joseph (‘Yossi’) was about three, he threw a tantrum if he didn’t get what he wanted. He’d lay on the floor, face down, and hit the floor with his hands. This happened a few times.

“I was stunned the first time and did not know how to handle it. I de­cided to use a dad’s ingenuity and love of sports. I pretended to be a boxing referee who is counting out a fighter who has been knocked down. Like a referee, with each number, I pointed at the fighter who is down.

“ ‘ONE! TWO! THREE! ...’ on to 10. I put up a finger for each number, just as a referee would. At the count of 10, I gave the standard referee hori­zontal-hands signal (like a baseball umpire signaling “safe”). Instead of saying, ‘knockout’ or ‘the fight’s over,’ I pronounced, ‘tantrum! tantrum! tantrum!’

“He was taken aback, then decided he didn’t like it -- that I was making fun of him. The result, though, was that the tantrums stopped and he learned to say, or express in other ways, what bothered him.”

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