Since 2 months back, Ern started to drive us to the wall almost every day, sometimes few times within a day. She would whine, cry, scream when her needs are not met or when she is cranky, especially when she didn't get enough sleep from her afternoon nap.
We were need to go through the battling of "yes" and "no" with her. She gave us inconsistent answers during the battle. For example, after she said yes over what we offered her (after we 're-negotiate' with her) , she can changed her mind immediately and said no. Then, we left her alone to cool off (after she said no), she cried even louder and beg us by telling us the yes answer again. Same thing, when we gave her, the 'no' answer came in.
So, this whole "yes" and "no" can last for a while. When luck is with us, we can easily distract her within 5-10 mins. At times when she didn't buy the idea, the battle could last for like 1 hour!
The first few times, we gave in. After a while, we sort of know she was trying to get our attention and we also lose our patience, we just ignore her. Of coz she cried even louder! Until we warned her to stop crying by giving her the stern look, she would stopped. At times, it worked but sometimes it doesn't, the 'yes' and 'no' drama started all over again.
In the end, we decided just to totally ignore her, trying to make her understand the trick she used doesn't use, while also trying to educate her not to give us 'yes' and "no' answer. We started to see the 'span of crying' is shortening now!
The old wive tales said this is sibling jealousy, an unexplained situation happened when the mother is expecting. Somehow, the toddler is able to 'sense' he/she will be getting less attention from their family members soon. Well, some said this is one of the phases of Terrible Two.
Well, I don't know which is which, I just hope this phase will go and not come back again when her sibling is born.
Keep our fingers cross :)
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