1. Inform him that he needs all that negative stuff drained out and to be filled with happy thoughts instead. Suggest something he’d be appalled by, like painting pink daisies on his toenails.
2. Imitate the whining he’s doing and morph it into the whine of a race car. Rev the engine through a few gears, then make the sounds of a car screeching to a halt and crashing.
3. Tickle fight!!!
4. Give him pointers on how to make his pouting more effective.
5. Rate his pout on a scale of 1 to 10.
6. Throw your own fit. Make it big…really put your all into it. (note: this is more effective at home than in public).
7. Pin him down and kiss him all over his face until he starts laughing.
8. Initiate a quick “Who can jump the highest?” competition. Any kind of physical competition works, as long as you get him up and moving a bit.
Earnest Parenting: help for parents of boys in bad moods.
Image courtesy of BobvdK via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.
#3 is my personal favorite, though I have all girls…
Hi Bob,
I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I should include girls and (obviously) decided against it. I have no experience parenting girls and I concluded that I wouldn’t do girls justice if I tried to come up with ways to tease them. Since, after all, the point isn’t really to annoy. Well…maybe just a little. 😉
i guess tickle fight is much better .. kids really like being tickled
Amy, wouldn’t a ride in the front seat of the van cheer them up?
Great list!~Wendy
@troubled teen: Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment. I’m very glad you’re here. Yes, it sounds like tickling is the winner so far. Hubby and I use a lot of humor with the boys, which includes physical tickling and the bugging them about nail polish.
@Wendy: ohhhhhh! You’re naughty! LOL.
I’ve done #1 and #7 lots of times with my boys. I’ll have to try some of the others, especially the jumping contest.
Great ideas, Amy!
#3 is my favorite habit whenever my child jump off into a bad mood. This is a lot of fun and creates an intimate relationship between you and your child. Ohh those cackles…
-Jan
Hi Jan, thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Is there anything better than hearing your child laugh?
I saw my boss use number 6 on his nephew. It was great, he was 6’5 and over 300 pounds and man did he throw a fit! In front of 10 of his employees, but boy did it work, the little kid stopped throwing a tantrum immediately and viewed my bosses fit in pure wonder and admiration at a true professional (he actually told his nephew that he was an amateur and this is how the pros do it!) it truly was a work of art. and it really works, he followed him around and was totally well behaved for the rest of the training seminar he was putting on.
When my 4 year old is in a bit of a bad mood (or hell, even my husband) we call them out as a grumpy goo. Whether they admit grumpy goo-ness or not, we issue the remedy as quick as we can!
The best way to stop a grumpy goo is…
to pull funny faces. We pull funny faces at our son, and eventually he starts to giggle and join in 😀
Modified Mummy we say grumpy gus or pouty pete here. Lol. Funny faces is an excellent strategy. I don’t always remember that one. Thanks for the reminder!
My mother used to annoy me like that and now I can’t stand being around her. Now everything she does annoys me. She doesn’t even have to try.
annoying, I’m so sorry to hear that you’re not getting along with your mother. I do it to build the relationship with my boys, and they end up laughing and happy. I wish the same for you, and that you are able to repair the relationship with your mother in the future.
I wonder if this doesn’t teach him to suppress his real feelings and emotions.
Bad moods, like good moods, come and go quite naturally.
So maybe we can learn and pass on to our kids that like all else, “This too shall pass”.
Taariq, I sincerely hope not. You’ve inspired another post on the topic. 😀 I’m off to write it now. Hope to see you there!
My nephew is quite moody -I tried a few things you have mentioned here, they worked very well….thats a good list thx
i think 2nd and 5th one is the best idea.
some of my sunday school’s students are so moody. 1,2,3 are works for me. sometimes, they so moody just to get more attention
Number 6 is hysterical, learn to draw, great story! Can you imagine being the other adults watching this? Wish I could have been there.
We would tell them that a birdie might fly by and poop on their lip (because it’s sticking out so much in the pout), it always got a giggle out of them.
DoctorFlix, I’m glad you had success.
Jolly Martin, did you actually do the whine-car thing? I haven’t used it in a long time. I’ll have to try it on a boy tomorrow for fun.
hairbroker yes, attention is a big factor. 🙂 I sometimes ask a whiny boy if his love bucket is empty and does he need some hugs to refill it. That often does the trick.
Val, oh yeah! I used the birdie line years ago but had totally forgotten about it. Way cool, I’m going to use that one tomorrow too. We’ve had a bit of grumpiness now that school has begun again.
no doubt Amy, number 3 works in almost all cases. You just can’t hold yourself from laughing and then some one well said that Laugh drains out the tension from your mind 🙂 Yeah even a child got a brain !don’t they?huh
My favorite is 7th
claudia, yes #3 works for all parties involved. Wasn’t it Bill Cosby who said that children are brain damaged in his Fatherhood comedy routine? I remember it was hilarious.
offshore development, I see that you like to go for the affection. 🙂 great choice! It also works to just invite him to get his love bucket filled and then hold him for a while. Sometimes a boy just needs a good hug.
I like to do razz on the tummy. That seems to work well lately.
Sunny, yes that’s always a good one! How old are your kiddos?
How about tell him he can take his mood to his room and come out when he’s ready to behave in a more acceptable manner?
smooches. gack.
This was really great! Im a mommy of three very interesting little boys and at least one of them is always in a pissy mood. Some of these I know work (my favorite is when I GET to throw the tantrum) and some of them I havent tried yet, but I cant wait.
Badmom, I do that sometimes. Generally speaking though, that puts me in a power struggle with the boy. Sometimes I’m willing to have a throwdown, but other times I’d rather help him get out of the mood more gently.
December, getting inspiration from other parents is one of the big reasons I love being online. 🙂 Good luck!
But wont No. 6 give him bad examples to follow?
Hindu gods, yes there is that risk. You have to know your own child before attempting a tantrum. The point was to make him laugh.
If you already have a relationship that’s got humor as a base, you can get away with throwing your own tantrum and not encouraging him to have one.
yes no.7 is work for me , my child is 1 year old when he laugh i really feel cool, it give us lots of relaxation. we have to take one lesson from child that we have to always laugh in each and every condition.
Laughing child always encourage you to be happy in your life.
Re: 8 Ways to Tease a Boy Out of a Bad Mood
I do prefer no. 3 and no.7…This will depends also the attitude of the child. Basically, if the child would feel the love and care of a parents they will be fine after that.
I think I’ve used most all of those at one time or another! They can all work depending on the severity of the mood I’ve found…
Pure genius! I bet these tactics would work so well! I can’t wait to give them a shot. Thanks!
I would like to go with 6
First of all the parents should be the role model. If child done anything wrong, the parental first role is they should monitor the child and analyze and think what’s the problem with the child. And rectify those problem from the child.
number 3 is my method of choice, but i like all them. great ideas to use on my three year old
My 2 year old boy loves it when I tell him ‘I’ve just seen someone on your slide in the garden’ and he snaps out of his mood.
Awwww, 2 years old! They’re so much fun at that age. Enjoy it!
Great tips. Thanks for sharing..
I would like to go with 4
I have developed a “You have 10 sec” method.
Works great for most of the “bad moods”
Basically am giving a simple command but i add “You have 10 seconds – 10,9,8….” He loves it!
He loves it so much when hes on good mood, that he cant resist it when hes on bad mood 🙂
Way to go, Luke! How old is your boy?
Lovely work! I’m definitely going to visit the blog frequently.