“Hardwired to misbehave”


“Michael Potegal, Ph.D., a pediatric neuropsychologist at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, has spent the latest part of his professional career studying tantrums and how and why young children have such brutally emotional explosions.

“And what has he learned in that time? That their outbursts are as normal a biological response to anger and frustration as a yawn is to fatigue. So normal, in fact, that you can make a science out of the progression of a tantrum and predict one down to the second.

“Kids from about 18 months to 4 years are simply hardwired to misbehave, he says. And that means “nurture” (i.e., you) isn’t always to blame.”


(Why couldnt someone have told me this earlier??! And why is it still so hard to not assume responsibility for it, in some fashion??)

(Credit of paragraph quoted to: http://www.parenting.com/article/toddler-temper-tantrums)