laratheescapeartist

Our daughters are SO different! The younger one is so happy and cheerful and makes me feel like an excellent parent- since she could say them at 18 months old she started dropping please and thank you into conversation without prompting, and at random points in the day she will ask for a cuddle or a hug which is utterly adorable. She’s only just turned two and while she does obviously have tantrums you can reason with her and (if she’s not in a state of over-tiredness or too hangry even to eat) she will take it on board and calm down. The elder one on the other hand has had incomprehensible tantrums and rages since she was born. I drew these cartoons of her when I thought what we were going through was a universal parenting experience, and it was only as our second child was getting older and I could compare the two that I realised there might be something a bit different going on.

Reading ‘The highly sensitive child’ by Elaine N. Aron Ph. D. and ‘Confident Parents, Remarkable Kids’ by Bonnie Harris both really helped me with understanding our elder daughter and with connecting to her better, which in turn has helped to ward off some of the worse tantrums that she used to have and stopped me from my previous ‘5 MINUTES OFF TV UNLESS YOU….. default mode of parenting with her. I highly recommend them both!