It seemed like any other evening when Nimisha Unadkat was getting ready to serve her daughter’s favorite dinner (homemade chicken and vegetable nuggets, a side of fruit). She walked over to her daughter’s playroom and asked her to put her dolls away and come eat.
But, as anyone who has spent a few hours with a toddler can attest to, transitions are hard. And simple requests can easily become high-octane power struggles in seconds.
So, yeah, your imagination can probably fill in the blanks with the crying, stomping crash-out that ensued.
Unadkat, of course, wasn’t oblivious to the world of tantrums — but the whole display still shocked her. She read plenty of parenting books while pregnant, heard stories from her mom friends and family members of their own kids’ greatest hits, and even saw random strangers’ kids lose it in public parks and grocery stores, upset over not getting whatever it was (the snack, the toy, the attention) they desperately wanted in the moment.
When a young child feels misunderstood, frustrated, hungry, tired or simply unable to get what they want, the resulting surge of emotions can be exhausting — both for them and their tiny bodies and for the caregivers who love them. However, tantrums actually represent a normal and expected part of early childhood development. According to the Mayo Clinic, unlike adults who generally possess the emotional regulation skills and autonomy to remove themselves from triggering situations, toddlers have limited language capabilities to express themselves effectively.
