Question
Hi,
I have a 3 and a half year old boy that I need help with. He has always been more sensitive than your average child (I also have a 5 and 2 year old girls so I do have a comparison of what a more "normal" temperament child I like). He is a little on the introverted side I think, he is generally kind and obedient and he's helpful around the house (as helpful as a 3 year old can be that is). But he cries. I don't mean he gets disciplined and cries for a few minutes. I mean he cries for like an hour or 2, often. His crying is brought on by a variety of reasons - discipline, sibling conflict, he doesn't get what he wants, the other day he wanted his sister to drink out of a red cup instead of a pink cup. In fact right now, he's crying, he woke up at 5:15am crying cause he wants to go to the dining room. I told him I wouldn't take him cause it's nighttime and he will wake up his sister and he's been crying for half an hour on my bed. (I took him out of his room cause he shares it with his sister and I didn't want to wake her up.)
He often stops crying if I'll get him his blanket but not always. I've tried "the doctor." The doctor says it means he's tired if he has a crying spells the day last more than 5 minutes so he has to go to bed at 5:30. It's helped some, decreased the crying spells from one a day to maybe 2-3 a week but it hasn't totally solved the problem. What should I do?? I want to help him solve this problem because I don't want him to grow up being a whiny and wimpy child, he of course seems really unhappy when he's having these crying spells and he's driving me bonkers with his crying (especially when it occurs at 5 in the morning. :).
Thanks for your help! I've loved your books, they've helped a ton with my parenting!
Not sure if it's relevant but he also wants me to do lots of things for him that he can do himself. Last week I started a token system where he has 5 tokens a day and each time I do something for him that he's capable of doing himself he had to give me a token. If he gives all 5 away then he has to spend the rest of his day on his room. It's almost eradicated the problem in just 4 days. The only thing he won't do for himself is get his blanket when he's upset. (Even if his blanket is 3 feet from him, he wants me to pick it up and give it to him.)
