eK-3zmjBImBHOZjRJYEZVBw4ZWs Shaky Mommy: Wailing Like a Banshee

Monday, April 23, 2012

Wailing Like a Banshee

Oh, the screaming. 


Jaxon has discovered the power of his lungs. 


He has learned he can stop everything with a single, well timed 10 second long shriek. If we're lucky, it's just a single shriek. On most days, though, that first shriek is followed by another, and a third and so on until he gets what he wants or gets tired of it and moves on to another activity.


He does this in the car, when he wants out of his car seat, or just wants to let us all know he's not pleased with being strapped in. 


He does this in church, when we won't hand over the pen, or allow him to dump his cup of water everywhere.


He does it in restaurants, where even hard of hearing old ladies turn to say "My, my, he is excited." 


It's driving us insane. 


I have noticed that he does it more when his siblings are around. For example, for The Great Cloth Diaper Change the other day, I was gone from home for about 6 hours. I think Jaxon screamed maybe 4 times the entire time, and each time, it was a single shriek, not the incessant screaming that drives everyone within a 2 mile radius crazy. Right now, he and I are home alone and have been for 2 hours and he hasn't screamed once. So I'm kind of thinking he does it to make sure he is the center of attention, which is hilarious because if you happen to know our family, you know that Jaxon definitely does not suffer from a lack of attention.

Anyone have any ideas for how to discourage this type of behavior? Our current methods are NOT working. 

6 comments:

  1. Oh this is a fun, FUN stage. ;-) Isaac is such a performer, when something doesn't go his way he runs to the center of the room and very carefully "falls" onto the floor and kicks his feet, crying. He used to be really bad about screaming, but he's doing better now. The way I deal with it is to put him in his room in his bed and let him cry. This usually makes him more angry (no audience now) but once I hear him calming down and quieting, I go in and get him. He calms down a lot quicker now, though.

    And I totally know it's for attention, only in our case Isaac cries when it's ME in the room. People tell me all the time that he doesn't start crying until he sees me, lol. So maybe make sure your kids aren't running to him every time he cries and giving him everything he wants? I know how embarrassing this is in public, so I feel your pain. Reminding myself it's just a stage...

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    1. I tried that...actually, I was doing because he also started hitting (that's a whole different post). The bed was working for a couple of weeks. He hated being left in there. But then he discovered it was bouncy. Now when I put him in there, he grins. Then he grabs onto the rails and jumps up and down happily. He's totally turned his punishment into playtime.

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  2. The Gnome is just now starting this. No advice, just commiserating with ya.

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  3. This is funny because I can totally relate! How old is he? Mine is 26 months and you know that I always told people I like having boys because girls shriek. Nope, so does the babe.

    Today we were at the grocery store and I would not let him have muffins (that I have in the past so he thinks he now gets them all the time) Screaming, crying, fit for a good 10 minutes. We went into the checkout lane and the girl looked at his red, tear-face, and said oh how cute. I said, did you hear him screaming? She smiled and said yeah, but I'm proud of you for not giving in. ha! :)

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    1. He's 14 months. And oh, Lord...I have another 12 months of this? LOL.

      I always thought only girls shrieked, too! My daughter definitely did this, but my first son did not. I was shocked when Jaxon started doing it.

      LOL at what the cashier said- that's hilarious! But it's sooo much easier to give in!

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