Screaming Phase

Adrianna has been going through this screaming phase to get what she wants or to get attention. Mostly during mealtimes and especially if we don’t feed her fast enough. While this is quite annoying while at home, we can ignore it and not reward the bad behavior without worring about bothering others. Greg puts his noice-cancellation headphones on for the noise and he is good to go. But, this screaming is very embarrassing when we are out in public. To try to avoid any angry stares from other restaurant patrons, we are tempted to give her more food (what she wants) just to shut her up. But the downside to this is that it rewards the screaming. If we don’t give her what she wants, we overhear comments behind us such as, “Oh, Goodness” or we overhear the word “screaming” in others’ conversations. What a conundrum.

So what we try to do when we are out to eat is anticipate the screaming before it happens and keep her little hands full of food that she can feed herself so that we can avoid the moment where she screams for more. But this is hard to do when you are trying to eat a meal yourself. Oh, the joys of being a parent. I hope this phase passes quickly, but I am afraid there will be another one to take its place. Such as the “No!” phase or the grocery store checkout “I want that!” phase. Not looking forward to either of those.