I recently had a strange experience that I just had to share with you, which gave me an incredible insight into the workings of a three-year-old’s tantrum. This stuff is gold dust! Believe me, it feels like a superpower – I actually understand the mind of a three-year-old in the middle of a meltdown!

This experience happened recently at the Fantasy Forest Festival, which I attended with a fairy-loving friend. We arrived in ‘light costume’ and enjoyed perusing the stalls in the first area, oohing and ahing at the wonderful creativity, artistry, designs, magical creations and wonderful costumes of the other attendees.

We sat by the lake admiring the mermaids, met a couple who had just got married there and drooled over expensive things we could not afford – like you do!

Then we enquired as to the whereabouts of the Mead Hall, only to be directed into ‘the next field.’ What? There was more? Indeed there was and upon entering the next field we were greeted with about 30 more stalls, food, drinks an arena with live music and archery.

“I felt like I needed a cry, a hug and a nap.”

At that moment my inner child stood stock still, overwhelmed, and I felt like I wanted to cry. I had already seen so much; loved so many things; appreciated so much beauty and magic that I had no room for more. I literally felt like I needed a cry, a hug and a nap, in that order.

Of course, as an adult I did none of those things, but shared my feelings with my friend, who suffers from Fibromyalgia so understood perfectly.

I suddenly realised why little kids simply lose the plot – especially on birthdays, Christmas, holidays and ‘nice days out’ – and we see parents exasperated having done so much to make them happy, only to see tears and tantrums.

We have a limited amount of ‘joy-ability’

We are just not built to sustain such wonder. We have a limited amount of ‘joy-ability’ within us before we need to calm down, and process it all. This is why they have naps, and why we adults sometimes need them too.

Small people feel wildly, deeply and powerfully but, unlike adults, cannot articulate those feelings. They release them in tears, hysterics, dropping to the floor or simply passing out dead asleep.

Factor in the need for snacks and rest

So if you have little people in your life, please bear in mind their unbridled immediacy and maybe factor in the need for water, snacks and rest, even on the most wonderful of special days. Oh, and assume their ability to take in stimulus may be heightened but also much shorter than yours, so limit exposure to one or two exciting things rather than a constant array of stimulus, which is guaranteed to overload their little brain and make them pop!

Now, I’m ready for a little nap myself…