How to Develop Your Toddler’s Frustration Tolerance

Have you observed your child trying to do complex tasks or playing with toys that trigger an emotional outburst? Many parents do their best to cope with the challenge of pleasing and calming down their children when they get too upset, and it is a common scenario for raising toddlers. Some kids cannot hide their irritability, especially when they feel frustrated about something, and most of them show it through temper tantrums, which leads to stressful moments for parents like you. Your toddler may grow up spoiled and strong-willed negatively if the child's frustration tolerance is not controlled and managed at an early age. And it gets tough since it is part of their developmental stage.

So, it is essential to learn how to develop your child's frustration tolerance as early as possible to avoid facing more misunderstandings in their behaviors. As experts suggest, parents must be patient and understanding over toddlers as they don't yet know the correct vocabulary to express their feelings. To get you to the bottom of learning more about this, here are on-point and detailed highlights and tips on controlling your toddler's tantrums and building a solid tolerance for frustration and other emotional outbursts.

Help Your Toddler Deal with Emotions

Toddlers are not yet ready for the responsibility of controlling their emotions over something, may it be frustrations during playtime or random tantrums because of not getting what they want. They are easily affected by minor details, and knowing how to act as their guardian is vital to their emotional growth. Knowing how to deal with the emotions of your toddlers is also a formidable challenge to most parents, but it is a great stepping stone and foundation for your child. The task is simple, but it takes courage and patience to accomplish.

Here's how you can help your child deal with their daily feelings:

Explain the basic feelings of happiness, sadness, and anger.

Helping your child identify the feelings they have towards something can be very beneficial not only to them but also to the people around them. It can make them communicate with empathy as they understand the basic emotions of a person.

Teach them how they must express their emotions.

Some child cannot handle big emotions, so it is essential to teach them how to express their feelings to avoid aggressive behaviors and outbursts adequately. Different strategies will encourage and increase their resilience.

Balance how you praise and correct their positive and negative behaviors.

You must teach children how to act accordingly with the proper guidance in correcting and praising their behaviors. Praise them when they do something good, but do not be too harsh when making mistakes.

Why Do Toddlers Get Frustrated Easily

Are you wondering why your child gets irritated easily? As a parent, you cannot avoid observing the actions of your toddlers whenever they are having their playtime or just randomly doing what they want. It is the perfect timing to see how they throw tantrums over silly things or cope with their frustration when playing with complex toys.

Many studies have proved that toddlers get frustrated easily because this is the age where they cannot communicate well with the people around them. They only know how to cry when they get upset over something. Most parents cannot understand why their toddlers seem frustrated quickly, making them punish their children even more.

To further get into details, here are the main reasons why they throw emotional outbursts:

They don't know how to communicate yet.

Whenever they do not want something or get problematic in playing, they do not know how to express their feelings, so they display them through tantrums and crying.

They have little control over their emotions.

When in the toddler stage, a child cannot control an emotional breakdown well because they have little temper. They cannot handle too much pressure and stress.

They have a low tolerance for uncomfortable feelings.

Aside from having little control over emotions, toddlers cannot yet understand why they feel uncomfortable over something, making them frustrated since they cannot tolerate or avoid feeling that way.

Tips on Developing Frustration Tolerance among Toddlers

Does your child get upset or angry when you say no or tell them not to do something? It only means they have a low tolerance for frustration. As a parent, it is your responsibility to give ideas or make coping skills on how they must respond to particular situations that trigger their frustration. In this part, the highlight goes to the tips and suggestions you can try to develop your toddler's frustration tolerance as they conquer this developmental stage.

Explain the basic feelings.

Toddlers cannot identify their emotions yet, so it would be best to provide a language you can refer to as they display their current feelings. You can start by building a foundation of teaching the basic feelings of sadness, anger, and frustration and showing them it can be worked and managed together. There are other ways to explain the emotions: letting them get exposed to them and giving them complete control.

Try different calming strategies.

Remember that your goal is not to avoid your toddlers getting frustrated but to develop their tolerance. Since it is not a simple task, you can hold on to a few calming strategies, like giving them a break or providing support during their playtime. For example, your toddler cannot finish a puzzle of shapes, so you need to teach them where the circle and square go instead of putting it yourself.

Support your toddler's independence.

There are times when your toddler wants to do a particular activity alone. Build your child's independence by setting up a playstation with easier access, toys that are easy to play with, and other things where they can have activities that calm them down. The space where your child spends more time should improve their independence and be surrounded by things that will help them manage their emotional outbursts.

Set up boundaries.

Setting boundaries and family rules is also a great way to develop your child's frustration tolerance, as they can look at you as their role model. They must also hear the answer "no" and learn their limits. Additionally, it makes them feel like the parents are in complete control and must be followed.

Encourage healthy emotional expression.

Let your toddler express their bottled-up feelings. It may be stressful to hear them scream or get upset over silly things, but letting them let it all out is also healthy. They must know their emotions are acceptable and normal and show they are understood and heard.

Give a responsive feedback.

It would be best to try responsive parenting, where you observe and act on your child's perspective and interests. You can start communicating with them by acknowledging their actions without judgment and harsh punishments. If you observe that your child has low frustration tolerance, talk like you understand why they are frustrated.