xiaoyun,
HR's terrible 2s were very manageable, cos he took to reasoning and distraction very well. We hardly needed to scold him, the phase went through pretty peacefully with only 1 or 2 times of big tantrums. So we were not very experienced in handling tantrum.
This time round is different. Like Yvonne said, scolding, shouting, threatening has become daily affair :-(
Our parenting style is pretty similar to what Pixie is practicising. Acknowledge his feeling, talk to him, talk and talk, reason, bargaining (eg, 5 more minutes then we close tv). At the end of it, if nothing works, either I lost my temper and scold him, or I ignore him totally and he sure comes back to me to say sorry and hugs and kisses me.
We actually know what works for him. But the thing is, we are concern about losing the fine balance of giving in to him too often. Take an example, we limit tv time to 30min per day, just before bedtime. Before the program is going to end, I will notify him, just 5 min to go and we have to go to bed. When the program ends, we switch off the tv. He would say he wants 5 more min. We give in and let him watch a little while, and he willingly went to bed, previously. But nowadays, after the 2nd 5 min, he asks for another 5 min, then after that he asks for 8min, 10min, then says have to wait till zero min, etc, just to prolong the time to test our limit. When I start to be firm and said it's the last time, sometimes he is okay, sometimes he wails badly said another 5 min. When he starts to wail, we start to struggle, either to force him to the room with his crying badly, or give him a stern warning and said this is the last 5min. If we do the later, he would go in to the bedroom happily and obediently. To us, this is a bit over-doing it. When I told my mum over the phone, she said we should give in till he is older. But now she sees it how it happens, she said yes, at times we need to be firmed with him, else he may become too demanding, not knowing the limit. SO ya, we are struggling in finding the fine balance.
And another thing is, HR has super good memory. He remembers exactly how I scolded him, how I have reasoned with him. He used the exact same words and same tone to scold meimei, exactly like me!! When I try to reason to him about the same thing, he said no, it's not like that, last time you said this and this, not that!! So my another struggle is to be very careful on what I use when talking to him. He is very very close to me, so I have to be a good example to him. When I lost temper often last month, he was also becoming more bad temper.
Oh, and, the good boy chart still works for him. So we are still using esp when he demands to buy a new toy or some candies.
It's never late so start showing lots of love to your kids. Why stick to the traditional chinese way? Drop that. Start to give them a big hug and a big kiss in the morning, when drop them to cc, pick them up at cc, while playing, and before nightime. This kind of special close contact does wonder in making a relationship works well! I was from a traditional chinese family, even till now, I never say how I love my parents and never give them a hug, let alone a kiss. But my kids are growing up with lots of hugs and kisses everyday. My parents see the different and they agree it's very different, it makes our family much closer! Try it!!