On Demand isn't working

It's become part of our routine to watch a cartoon when I put Matthew down for a nap. This averted Sam's naptime antics which included him running circles in Matthew's room, climbing in Matthew's crib, yelling, slamming the door and other distracting things while I was trying to read to Matthew and rock him before his nap. So Sam gets a cartoon. And Matthew and I get a peaceful naptime routine.

Now that Matthew isn't always napping in the morning, Sam still thinks that he gets to watch a cartoon. So today Matthew didn't seem to want to take a morning nap, although Sam started begging to watch a cartoon as soon as we left the Y. I told him that if Matthew took a nap we could watch a cartoon. He insisted on watching a cartoon. By insisted, I mean that he started whining. Loudly. Screaming. Crying. So that strengthened my resolve to not watch a cartoon today. I mean, I just can't give in to whining, crying, screaming, tantrum-like behavior, right? That would reinforce his bad behavior. So I told him that no, we weren't watching a cartoon today. The tantrum escalated. No giving in now. No turning back. No signs of weakness in the face of a two-year-old tantrum.

The only problem is that I really can't stand his tantrums. They irritate me like no other thing on earth. I can handle nails on a chalkboard better than Sam's tantrums. Apparently I'm not alone too as I heard on the news lately that some study showed that little kids whining has been empirically shown to be the most annoying noise for adults (for more info read this). It pushes me to the brink of insanity and it goes on and on and on. I usually employ distraction tactics for myself such as turning on the radio (as if I could hear it) or frantically cleaning something. He usually follows me around screaming. Anyway, today I just couldn't take it anymore, so I tried something different.

"Sam, the On Demand isn't working. We can't watch any cartoons." See, we usually use Comcast's On Demand feature to watch whatever program we want to, such as the Berenstein Bears, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, etc. Earlier I said that the TV was broken, but Sam grabbed the remote and turned it on. The smarty-pants. So I resorted to saying that we couldn't get any cartoons through On Demand. Sam seemed to know that that meant as he quieted down right away. He said something about Daddy fixing it. Then he asked to watch a program on the TV downstairs as he knows that programs come from somewhere else down there (we don't have cable downstairs, just Netflix through the XBox). I said I didn't know how to do it. He said something about Daddy figuring it out. Smarty-pants.

Anyway, I told two lies to get my child to quiet down and maintain my sanity. I read somewhere that parents generally shouldn't do things like saying somethings broken when it really isn't just to avoid confrontation or tantrums. Parents need to be in authority and learn to say no and kids need to hear parents say no. So I generally try that. But I just couldn't take it anymore. Seriously, the tantrums related to tv watching are extreme, and probably account for 90% of the tantrums in our house. So the On Demand is broken. I don't know for how long, maybe indefinitely, but it sure made for a more peaceful day.