One of our teachers is a grandma. Her daughter's family is staying with her for a month, with their two young children. Their three-year-old had a huge, screaming tantrum that went on for about 45 minutes last week. Her Daddy was with her, and our teacher as well.
The Daddy was trying to talk his daughter out of the tantrum, but our teacher kept gently reminding him that this was exactly what his little girl needed to do, and that she was smart to work on her feelings so vigorously. Both of them stayed with her, one happy that she was getting good work done, the other not so happy that all this commotion and unreasonableness was taking place.
The little girl finally quieted down and was sitting, thinking. Our teacher gently reminded her of the incident that had set her off, thinking that maybe she had more feelings to eject about it. But the little girl didn't answer, so our teacher said, “Sweetie, here I am. Can you take a look at me and at your Daddy? We are here with you.” She looked long into her grandma's eyes, then into her Daddy's eyes, brightened up, and said, “Hello, everybody!” Then she ran off to play. She slept two hours longer that night than usual, and was a dream to be with the next day.