Smashed Ipad 2 and the Terrible Twos

Today was an eventful day.
Oodie had a tantrum. He had a BIG tantrum. We are turning two pretty soon but we’ve been fighting ‘terrible two syndrome’ for the past 8 months.
All the books, doctors, family and friends say ‘ignore the tantrums’… I have done and it does work. He does stop but… Today, he had a tantrum. I was inside the bathroom…. Of course, I did what I usually do… Ignored. Little
did I know what was about to happen next…… Crash- what the hell was that, I wondered…
I quickly finished brushing my teeth and tidying myself up- next thing I hear is BoKhalid. ‘Khalid, why did you do that? Mummy, come here…..’

One smashed iPad.

Apparently he had fired the iPad across the floor in a flying rage…..

Was I angry? Yes
Did I shout? Yes
Did I punish him? Yes

We put him in his bedroom and explained that was very naughty. He pretty much understood. He cried. Lots of crying and lots of ‘mummy shout’, ‘daddy sad’, ‘oodie naughty’.

Anyway we put him in his room and he sat in his bed and he cried.
I left him there.

Came back to my room and heard those two little words- two little words that I have only heard twice in the last 8 months…. ‘mummy daddy.. I’m sorry’.
And with that, I got up, went into his room and picked him up and gave him a big hug.

He genuinely didn’t mean to break it. He doesn’t understand it has a glass screen and that glass shatters BUT he DOES understand he shouldn’t throw things and that is punishable.

What surprised me was how I can’t actually get mad at my kids. How whatever they do does not matter. At the end of the day, he wasn’t injured and it’s a material object. I won’t tell him that though because he does need to learn to respect other people’s possessions.