Little Terror on Board

Just go back from Langkawi yesterday, it was a lovely short holiday. On the flight back however, L started acting out. I swear the whole plane could hear her. She got woken up from her sleep when daddy tried to ‘adjust’ her head and her tantrum started. There was no way to placate her.

“I want a pillow” and when I got her a pillow she hit the pillow “I don’t want the pillow like that”

“I don’t want daddy. Daddy go home” and when I carried her she struggled “I don’t want mommy. I want Daddy”

 “I want milk” and when I took down her bag to make her milk she cried “I want daddy to make it”

“I want to buckle myself” and when I gave her the seat belt she threw it away “I don’t want the seat belt”

“I don’t want you to carry me. Put me down!” and when I put her down she kicked and screamed “I don’t want to sit down”

… and on and on and on she went…

You can imagine all the struggling, yelling and screaming while I tried to keep my cool. She then sat on the floor and started bouncing up and down. When I told her she’ll hurt herself that way, she said “I want to hurt myself”. There is just no way to win her over. So although the seat belt sign was on (there was a slight turbulence), I had no choice but to just let her be. One thing I learnt about dealing with strong headed kids like L, there really is no point in trying to talk sense into them while they’re in their tantrumy mode cos they’ll just rebut everything you say.  The best solution is to simply ignore them and let them be until they calm down. So finally I told L calmly, OK you do what you want. She climbed onto the seat, lied down on the pillow and drank her milk. That was all and she was back in her cheery mood after her bottle of milk. So what was that big fuss all about? I still wonder…

Gosh I sure hope this bad behaviour doesn't repeat itself on our flight to Perth this month end!