Tantrum or Meltdown?
Dear parents,
Read the story and figure out whether it was a tantrum or a meltdown. Distinguishing tantrums and meltdowns is very important for parents of neurodivergent children.
Please do not go by the title. We just call it Tantrums at Twilight because Meltdowns at Twilight does not sound right. So please read the story to figure it out.
Thanks to Morpheus Nag for his creative representation of tantrums/meltdowns.
A visit to New Haven
In October 2007, I was going to New Haven to visit my brother. My brother started studying at Yale university in 2007. I am fond of my brother and I was excited to be able to visit him in New Haven. I got ready and told everyone to leave for the airport.
When I reached the airport, I heard that the flight got delayed because a bird hit the engine. They said that the flight will leave at 12 pm. I made my dad keep on asking the agent when they are going to board. Then, I started getting a little anxious. Then, I started getting upset about the delay. I was hoping that we would still make it to the hotel before sunset. For some reason, going in a car after dark used to bother me. Since this was a new place, I was even more upset. When I heard about a further delay till 2 pm in the afternoon, I freaked out even more. My mom said “What can the airline do if a bird hit the engine?”
Finally, the boarding started. When I reached New Haven, I was wanting to go quickly to the hotel before it got dark. By the time my dad rented the car and started driving on the highway, there was a massive traffic jam. Then, I got extremely upset. I insisted that if we do not make it to the hotel before dark, we have to stop driving and just sleep in the car. My mother said that it is more dangerous to sleep in a car near a gas station than it is to drive to the hotel.
When we reached the hotel, I insisted that my dad had to get Aneesh (my brother) right away from Yale. My dad said that he was tired and wanted to rest. I then kept insisting that my dad had to get Aneesh that same night. So my dad went and got Aneesh. I was happy to see Aneesh. We all slept peacefully.
Dear readers,
If you read my previous posts such as Wailing in Washington, you can probably guess that this is one more story that my mom and I used to act when I was young. Of course, she played Ananth and I played some other roles.
Do you think this was a tantrum or a meltdown? Do your children have tantrums and meltdowns? Join the discussion in our group here.
Author Ananth Raghunandan