Tantrums from a threenager

Kiddy#1 is the queen of tantrums, I'm sure.  I have never seen another child having a tantrum quite like her.  As mentioned in my previous post, we do have a discipline issue, so every time we do have to discipline her i.e. send her to her room, not allow her to watch a movie, etc. because she is being naughty, a gigantic tantrum will follow.

I've tried telling her why she is being punished by for example being sent to her room, but she screams so loud that she couldn't possibly hear me talking.  Sometimes it is the slightest thing that triggers a tantrum.  The other night she woke up at 12 o'clock and mumbled something.  I couldn't hear what she was saying and thought she was half asleep still.  I told her to go back to sleep and she got so upset, rolled over to her tummy and had a proper tantrum.  Turned out that all she wanted was water to drink.  You would thought they would just say so!

I know some people believe that one year old's are too young to have tantrums, but Kiddy#2 surely does something that resembles a proper temper tantrum.  When I pick her up from school and I don't take her into my arms immediately or if I have to put her down to check something in her bag, she throws herself on her face on the floor and just lies there and cry until I convince her to get up and come to me.  Also, when her teacher gives attention to another child or picks another child up at a time that Kiddy#2 thought it was her turn for attention, she does the same.  I'm amazed sometimes that she doesn't get hurt when she falls on the floor like that.  She probably had a lot of practise at school already and knows exactly how to land on her tummy without hurting herself.  It gives me a fright every time I see it though.

Neither Kiddy#2 nor Kiddy#1 becomes aggressive and punch or bite, etc. when having tantrums and for that I'm very grateful.  I had a look online to see if I could find some good advise on how to deal with it and came across this article:  http://children.webmd.com/tc/temper-tantrums-topic-overview

To be honest, I'm not sure whether time-out works with Kiddy#1 and Kiddy#2 is still too small to get time-out, but it might be worth a try with Kiddy#1 again.  I have read before that you should give time out according to their age, i.e. if they are 2 years old = 2 minutes time out; 3 years old = 3 minutes time out.

The thing is with Kiddy#1 that she will scream louder and louder while having time out and she only calms down once the 3 minutes are up.  Maybe we should try a naughty chair somewhere else in the house and not in her room.  I know that her room should be a safe place for her and not somewhere where she gets sent to for time out, but our space is very limited so we don't have that many options available.  A naughty chair in the corner of the lounge might be the answer.

I guess the answer is to just try different options until you find what works for you and your child.