The terrible twos don’t exist.
Apparently parents create it. A generation of entitled self-indulgent parents who take their children to areas well beyond them and just expect them to fit in.
If we didn’t leave our homes and expose our toddlers to vast brightly lit shopping centres or noisy pubs or restaurants we wouldn’t experience the “terrible twos”.
If we just allowed them to be children and not expect them to fit into our lives, we wouldn’t have to deal with tantrums and meltdowns.
It’s not the child, it’s the way they are being raised.
That’s the opinion of a British behaviour expert, Gillian Bridge, who has told The Times that parents from other cultures were often “mystified” by the “terrible twos” concept.
“We expect to take our children to an awful lot of places and get them to fit in with adult arenas which we wouldn’t have thought appropriate years ago,” she said.
Yes, that’s right, that kicking, screaming, foot-stamping toddler who just threw a fist full of peas at the wall. That’s your fault.
That red-faced, bawling semi she-devil howling “Mine-Mine-Mine-Mine-Mine-Mine-Mine” at the Kinder Eggs display in the supermarket. That’s your fault.
According to the author of The Significance Delusion toddlers in countries like the UK, the US and Australia are routinely taken to places where they are unlikely to behave well, such as the pub or cinema.
Your two-year-old refusing to put on her shoes, or let you change her nappy.
Top Comments
I suggest the so-called behaviour expert Gillian Bridge to change job or come up with a less provocative statement in order to sell her books. Certainly I will not buy her books nor buy into her nonsense theories blaming parents for a toddler normal brain development behaviour. Coming from Italy, a different culture from the one of mentioned Anglosaxon countries, I can assure Ms Bridge that tantrums (in Italian "fare i capricci") are well part of our two years old children stage of life. The only thing that surprises me is the space given by reputable news sources like The Times to these pseudo experts in search of free pubblicity and book sales profits.
Oh please! As painful as it is for parents, it is a necessary part of their development. All children get in bad moods to varying degrees and without the ability to reason their way out of it they might get upset. Or shock horror, throw a tantrum. I have worked with children in developing nations and in Australia and they are all capable of getting angry, being unreasonable and unaccountably bursting into tears, just like adults. Don't get me wrong, discipline and boundaries are very important for toddlers, but often when they throw a fit they are not being deliberately naughty. Sometimes they are just tired or hungry or frustrated and they can't communicate their needs any other way. I think we need to stop being so afraid of crying children.