There's just no rhyme and reason to a toddler's moods sometimes. They're tempestuous creatures: Be kinder to them: They don't know what the hell's going on most of the time.
The meltdowns, as you can imagine, can run the gamut from annoying to downright hilarious, as Redditor mirarom discovered when they asked parents, "Redditors with toddlers, what's the most recent illogical breakdown they've had?" These parents thankfully still have their senses of humor intact.
"Nothing worked."
I'm a nanny, we are driving home from preschool. Enter his neighborhood
Him "YOU SAID WE WERE GOING HOME.."
me "we are"
Him "NO THIS IS NOT MY HOUSE
Me "I know but we are driving there"
Him "THIS ISNT THE WAY TO MY HOUSE" *pulls up to house"
me "see child we are here"
Him "THIS IS NOT MY HOUSE" He Repeats screaming and crying for about 15 minutes as I try to prove it's his house via his animals and room and toys. Nothing worked. I actually became paranoid that this was not his house and I was in some strangers house with the same pets. The child got to my head.
"...so he was stuck inside."
Because the imaginary door on his imaginary fire truck wouldn't open, so he was stuck inside.
"I asked my dad what initially set him off though."
My son was basically upset I missed the tantrum he had started to throw for grandpa... He was doing his face in the carpet, kicking feet, over the top fake crying when I guess he realized he was missing something.
So he came upstairs, grabbed my hand, huffed and puffed angrily while walking me directly next to Grandpa, totally positioned me for the show, and got right back into meltdown mode. Looking up every so often to make sure we were still watching it.
I asked my dad what initially set him off though. He said he shut off his own show and didn't know what else to do.
"The enraged, sobbing wail from back seat of my car..."
The enraged, sobbing wail from the back seat of my car "He's looking out my window"
My youngest was mad because his brother was looking out of "his" window instead of the other one.
"He already finished eating it."
My girlfriend-at-the-time texted me when she was looking after her 3 year old brother.
"Josh is crying because he doesn't want an icecream.
He already finished eating it. This was 15 minutes ago."
"My mom would then ask..."
Giphy
My mom used to offer food to my brother. He'd clearly say no. My mom would then ask,
"Are you sure you don't want this? Because I'm going to eat if you don't want it. This piece of food, right here."
"No..."
Eats it
45 minute tantrum with hyperventilating crying
"It was just a glance..."
8 year old sister was looking at her. It was just a glance, but my 3 year old went into a f---ing rage.
"My little kraken just slept..."
My little kraken just slept... after a raging tantrum because i did not let him chew on the connected cables.
I'm just trying to keep you alive buddy, I swear.
"Breakdown."
They wanted another chicken nugget, so I gave them another chicken nugget.
Breakdown.
"Buddy, it's not our car!"
I wouldn't let him get in the car parked next to us. Buddy, its not out car!
"Thankfully she's a young toddler..."
I wouldn't let her put crayons in my ear.
Full-on dropping to the ground, wailing and sobbing like I'd killed our cat in front of her. I would tell her we don't put stuff in our ears, which would make her sob louder.
Thankfully she's a young toddler and easily distracted, so it only lasted a few minutes.
"She yells at people..."
Elevators... My kid thinks people get on them to die! I have shown her that it's okay, even ridden one up and down with her (while she screamed the entire time). I just don't get it. She yells at people not to get on the elevator! Screeches and is terrified if someone she loves gets on one...
"...and passed out."
2 AM, 2 year old wakes up due to bad dream. Asks his mother to put the "blanket up" I.e. cover him with the blanket. She proceeds to do so and he yells "NOT LIKE THIS, LIKE THIS!" and holds the blanket six inches above his body.
So my wife takes the blanket and holds it above him, then let's go and it falls. He gets mad. "LIKE THISSSSSS!"
He expected my wife to be able to make the blanket float six inches above him for the entire night.
30 minutes of crying later he conceded that he had lost his fight against gravity and passed out.
"Spoiler alert."
My daughter dropped a pretzel and the dog ate it. She started bawling and threw her entire cup of pretzels on the floor. Spoiler alert: the dog at those too.
"Sydney!"
Me: Sydney, Mommy came in your room and gave you a kiss while you were sleeping last night. I missed you because I wasn't home when Daddy put you to bed.
Sydney, 3 yrs old: immediately begins hysterically crying and yelling, YOU DIDN'T COME IN MY ROOM BECAUSE I WASN'T SLEEPING!!
Me: Okay, Syd, you're right, I didn't come in your room, I only went into Avery's room.
Sydney: still crying 20 minutes later, I WASN'T SLEEPING!
"Guess who got a new cookie."
Yesterday my son cried because he didn't want to finish his chewed up cookie. He basically put it in his mouth, sucked on it, and then spit it into my hand. And then he decided he wanted a new cookie. I told him he can't have a new cookie because I knew he was going to keep doing it. Plus the cookie he spit into my hand was fine lol. Cue mental breakdown. He's 1 1/2. Guess who got a new cookie.
"Suddenly my toddler noticed..."
My husband wanted a hug from me so I was about to go give him one. Suddenly my toddler noticed and screamed "NOOOOOO only I can give daddy love!" and proceeded to have a meltdown while pushing me away and hugging him. She instantly calmed down, glared at me, and said "you're not allowed to hug daddy, daddy's love is mine."
Key word: "Tried."
My daughter tried to wipe off my tattoo and went into full tantrum mode when it wouldn't come off.
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run