I Brake for Meltdowns | Jul 10th 2008
Last week I received a copy of a new book titled, I Brake for Meltdowns: How to Handle the Most Exasperating Behavior of Your 2- to 5-year-old
The book is due out on the shelves on July 15th, so it was kind of neat to get a sneak peak.
I’ll admit I’m a skeptic when it comes to parenting books. I have a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old, so I’d like to think my kids are beyond tantrums. Of course I’m fooling myself.
That was painfully clear today when my husband explained how my 4-year-old had a titanic meltdown in Lowes because her Barbie lost a shoe somewhere in the store. He left without buying anything or going food shopping as he’d planned to do.
But you know, denial is nice assuming one can hang onto it for any length of time. In any case, I’ve been cracking open “I Brake for Meltdowns” more frequently than I’d planned.
Right off the bat, the book set a tone I could relate to. The second paragraph contains (in my humble opinion) the best line in the book. “I think it’s accurate to say that small children sometimes behave as if they are, in fact, crazy.” Amen to that, sista.
The book is laid out categorically with each chapter tackling a different issue (e.g., Meltdowns/Tantrums, Social Graces, Sleep, Eating, etc.) Since my 4-year-old currently refuses to eat anything except chicken nuggets, string cheese, pasta and bologna - I flipped to this chapter first. The advice was sound - don’t give her too many choices, don’t give her a snack if she refuses to eat dinner, serve stuff you know she’ll like.
Truth be told, most of the information is stuff I heard in the past but it was nice to reinforce it. It kind of made me confront the realization that it’s not okay to let her take all her meals of bologna and string cheese on the couch while watching SpongeBob.
Also, while some of the advice just won’t work for my child, that’s ok because every kid is different. For example, there’s no way my child will take a bite out of a cucumber round even if I explain that it will turn into a moon. But I don’t hold this against the authors - my daughter is stubborn as hell when it comes to eating. In fact, I was heartened by the comment included in this section, “Eating, like pooping, is out of our control.” It kind of feels nice to be let off the hook once in a while.
One final note - I liked the index at the back of the book which lists various issues alphabetically. It makes for a handy reference. Stuff like, Fingernail clipping, First-aid training, First-time offense, etc. I live for the day I get to write an index like this in a book. Only mine will read more like: Demonstrating “me-time” by example, Explaining PMS, and (my favorite), Get-the-hell-off-of-me.