When Scorch was 2 years old I begged my mother-in-law to reassure me that kids got easier after the terrible two’s.

She laughed and I got scared.   Sadly, she was was right- the 2’s have nothing on the 4’s.

The testing and the daily battle of wills that happened when Scorch was 2 isn’t an issue with him any more.  Now the tantrums only happen once or twice a month at the most but when they do, they are epic.

Tonight Scorch wanted to play basketball in the house- something we allow.  But he wanted to play with a very specific basketball and the Hubs told him no. The ball was too big, too hard and not appropriate for inside play.  9 times out of 10, Scorch deals with this info and moves on without an issue.  But not tonight- for whatever reason, Scorch decided that that ball was the only one he could play with and he let us know it.

There was yelling. There were threats. There was foot stomping and tears and finger pointing.  There was absolutely no reasoning with the kid.  He was too far gone thanks to a combo of too much fun earlier in the day and too little sleep last night.

These tantrums are mortifying when we’re out in public, but when we’re home they are funny as hell.  But because we can’t let Scorch see how amused we are (like when he stomped his foot and yelled “Give me that ball right now, Mister!” with all the fury and indignation a 4 year old can muster), the Hubs and I have to take turns dealing with him while the other one leaves the room with their shoulders shaking (hopefully Scorch thinks it’s out of anger).

Scorch ran out of steam pretty quickly and apologies were made and feelings were soothed.  Then we put him to bed a full 45 minutes early so we could mock our son and laugh out loud freely.