Honestly I understand kid tantrums. Like, statistically, this may very well actually be the worst thing to happen to them! They have limited life experience! They're learning!
The Kidlet used to have SCREAMING fits on our way to get allergy shots because they hurt! And he knew they hurt! And we were ON THE WAY TO GET THEM.
Me: I'm sorry, kid, the anticipation makes it worse, huh?
Him, then six or seven, distracted easily by having questions: anticipation?
Me: yeah, when you know something's coming and you don't like it but unfortunately we have to do it. Because otherwise you can't breathe, because allergies.
Kidlet: IT IS THE WORST.
Anyway he learned how to deal with it, often by talking and asking questions of the nurses, but like. Of course he was upset! We were on the way for him to get STABBED. He had not heretofore in his memory had worse injuries!
Anyway yeah I think about that when kids are crying.
I saw a similar sentiment in a post a while back on here and I think about it every goddamn day. not just if something bad's happening to them, but like, you know what, it IS unfair to be micromanaged every second of your day. It IS unreasonable to expect kids to immediately jump from one thing to the other when you know damn well we don't require that of adults. "Because I said so" ISN'T a satisfactory response to literally anything.
anyway this is why I spend hours on gentle parenting tiktok
also, just since I'm thinking about it: allergy shots are the most painful shots I've ever gotten. my COVID shot gave me arm pain for days but the actual shot itself was two seconds. allergy shots are uniquely painful because of how fucking long they take.
One of my most vivid memories as a new parent was sometime during MK's first winter. She was somewhere between 4 and six months old, and she had her first ear infection. Of course she got it when her dad was at work with our only car, and there was nowhere close by I could get to, and we were out of baby Tylenol, and the doctor wasn't in, it was a Friday night, I couldn't get hold of anybody...
... and until I got a hold of my buddy and begged him to please put on pants and run to CVS and get me some baby Tylenol, MK cried. Non-stop. For hours. And hours. And hours.
Once I finally got medication in her and she passed out, exhausted from screaming, once the pain subsided, I complained about it to a buddy of mine online, what a shitty night I'd had. She responded very sarcastically about oh how can the kid complain about something so minor, and I remember responding very abruptly that she shouldn't talk like that, and she shouldn't make fun of my kid's pain, because, yeah, it really was shitty to her, because to her, that was the worst pain she'd ever felt.
Little kids have big feelings because everything is The Most. If something is good, it's the best it's ever been, because to them, it really is. If something is bad, it's the worst it's ever been, because to them, it really is. Lack of experience means lack of context, and because kids don't have higher highs or lower lows to compare these things to, of course they're the Worst, Scariest, Best, Most Amazing.
Because on the other hand, there was also the time when @mistresskabooms somewhere between ages 18 months and 2 years, climbed up onto the couch to look out the window at a very prosaic summer thunderstorm, flailed her hands at me until I turned off the living room light, and then stood, leaning on her dad, staring out the window, and when a thoroughly average bolt of lightning jagged across the sky, breathed, "Wooooooow."
