That kid in the link you posted was not truly distressed. He was pitching the mother of all temper tantrums. When you’re a mom, you learn quickly when it transitions from genuine pain or distress to acting.
That kid was milking it because he’s used to it working for him before.
Several years ago I was working with a child that needed constant monitoring and he would hit and bite, the whole nine yards. So he was trying to scratch and bite me so I took him by the wrists and held them far enough apart to not be able to do anything.
Then he tried the “I DON’T LIKE YOU!!!!!” routine, and I replied with “I. Don’t. Care.”
His reaction was priceless. He literally deflated, like someone popped a ballon and he looked down with this “Now what do I do?” look on his face. His tactic didn’t work and he did not know how to handle it. He was so used to manipulating people with his behavior that he had it mastered. At 5.
And I have seen other little kids like the ones in this article swear like a sailor. They know all the words and how to use them. Gives you a glimpse of their home life. These poor toddlers in this article are already lost causes. The damage is done.
I was in a store the other day and a little girl was in a cart with 2 younger children screaming her lungs out.
The cart was manned by two women with multi colored hair and skin art.
When we crossed paths in an aisle I knelt down and told the little girl that if she were not quiet I would have her mommy force her to listen to opera for an hour.
Mom was speechless, friend cracked up, little girl was too confused to scream much more