The terrible twos are something that everyone seems to have heard of. Even people who are not parents and have no intention of ever becoming parents know about the terrible twos. Seriously, the terrible twos must have some kind of great PR agent because they get so much attention. As a parent you wait for them, thinking and hoping that maybe your 2-year-old will be the exception to the rule, but then almost right at the stroke of midnight on your child's second birthday something happens and your adorable little baby turns into a tantrum-throwing monster with little breaks of adorableness just to make it all bearable.
You take deep breaths, grit your teeth and tell yourself that this too two shall pass. This two will lead to three and then surely your child will be an angel again because no one says nothin' about how bad the threes are. But guess what? You're wrong!!! It doesn't get better, it gets WORSE. So much worse.
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Yes, the terrible twos are awful and nothing to scoff at or minimize, but they are nothing compared to having a threenager. A threenager is a 3-year-old with the attitude of a willful, know-it-all teenager. All 3-year-olds go through it, but for some reason it doesn't get the hype that the terrible twos get.
A threenager makes a 2-year-old's tantrums seem laughable. A 3-year-old is bigger, smarter, louder and more conniving. They know what they want and they are determined to get it no matter how long it takes. They are in it to win it.
I'm convinced that no one talks about threenagers and how bad they are because it would be too much for a parent just embarking on a terrible twos voyage to think they'd be out in a tumultuous sea of tantrums for two years as opposed to one. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe we are all wrong, maybe originally the term terrible twos was meant to imply that once your kid turns two you are in for a terrible two years.
All I know is that I have a threenager right now and I actually look back fondly at her terrible twos, but I do not look forward to her teenage years.
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