My daughter had a tantrum today. That’s nothing new. But what was new was what happened afterwards.

After having a tantrum about not being able to swim in a puddle and run amok in a busy car park, my two year old stopped. She stood very still. She waited until I picked her up. And then she hit me in the face.

It wasn’t an arms flailing, screaming, accidental, wrong-place-wrong-time hit. It was calculated. She thought about what she was going to do. And then she did it. A belting thwack! right across the cheek.

Stung, I wrestled her into her car seat, while she silently bit me, pulled my hair, slapped me across the other cheek and pulled a thread from my brand new coat.

This was not a tantrum. Continue reading »