I have developed a major capacity to avert tantrums. My success rate is not 100%, and if yours is, have you considered a career in law enforcement? But it’s pretty good.
Today, for instance, a tantrum was beginning because we had to leave the bookstore and a huge yellow toy dog wasn’t coming with us. So I chose a moment when Klara was filling her lungs with air for another piercing scream, and asked, “Does your friend Zuri know how to laugh?” The question took her aback for a second, and I continued, “Does she laugh like this (a weird laughing sound) or like this (an even weirder laughing sound)?”
Half a dozen weird laughing sounds later, Klara was laughing herself and the tantrum was averted. Instead, we had an interesting discussion of why everybody laughs in a different way.
