Terrible twos

If someone tells me they last until 3 i might go crazy.

Mother nature should make you go through having a 2 year old before you can conceive again

Daughter is only 2 years and 2.5 weeks old and it was like a light switch - lovely then

She had a big change shifting to the big kids daycare and a cold but honestly can anyone tell me how long this might last... (be nice i am fragile!!)

It really depends on the kid and how you manage the situation, but yes it is an essential developmental stage you need to survive.

I find that they tend to go through bad patches of what feels like endless tantrums, bad sharing and whining, hitting etc for a few weeks on end but then things smooth out for a bit. But i also think personality and how you manage it makes a huge difference.

This is the time when you are really trying to create a human being we would all like to share the planet with. They are going to push all the social boundaries to find out where those boundaries are. And then they are going to push and push and push just to check that the response is the same each time.

We recently did a "your child personality" course at The Parenting Place and that has made a huge difference to my understanding of where my boy is coming from and what his frustrations/anxieties are. It also covers your personality and dymanics, and discipline techniques for different personalities. I went with a friend whose previously delightful 2yo had been driving her nuts and she says it is much better now.

Advice:
One of the best things i think is to try (hard tho) to keep calm when managing the behaviour. Losing your temper just aggravates it.
Pick your battles but be super consistent with what you choose to focus on.
Give lots of positive attention and make sure physical/social needs are met.
Hunger/thirst/tiredness/boredom will all make behaviour worse, so try not to let these be an issue.
Treat them with respect - calmly explain why the behaviour is not ok, always give them the chance to make the right choice. If you back a toddler into a corner they will just lose it.

If all else fails Valium was called mothers little helper for a reason.

i work in childcare and have always worked with 2-3's and im sorry to say but i believe its terrible 3's not 2's!!! stand your ground, remeber you are the parent so are in charge, if they are having a tantrum walk away, if they dont have any attention they are going to get over it really quickly! just make sure they are in a safe place

They do drive you round the bend a bit, but it definitely goes past 3 too sorry to say. But by then they are also becoming super caring and sweet too, so it all evens out.

For me the terrible 2's started at 15 months and have been going on ever since. I do agree though with who ever said it tends to be several weeks of particularly bad behaviour and then settles down for a bit till the next cycle starts. I also tried to work out what it is that DD does that completely winds me up and tried to think sensibly about whether it really matters or not. I try really hard to not "sweat the small stuff" and think outside the square a bit when it comes to dealing with some of the behaviour - distraction works really well with some things but not with others, sometimes just singing a song lightens the mood a bit and sometimes I have to put us both in time out so we can calm down Some days and weeks are definitely worse than others and sometimes I just have to remind myself that "this too shall pass".