Let me start with this: I believe kids are smarter than parents. I am talking about street smarts! . And, I believe children have an innate ability to know when parents need to be cut some slack. Raising 3 kids under the age of six, I came up with a solution for meltdowns and tantrums (the kids, not mine) which worked surprisingly well. When more than one of my kids was having a meltdown I would (calmly) get at their level and explain to them I could only handle one meltdown at a time. I described it as a "take a number" operation where the child screaming the loudest or throwing themselves on the floor the hardest got my attention first. It was like negotiating a peace treaty at the preschool level. The first time I said this to my children the two older kids exchanged glances and appeared to accept this was fair. It is one of my favorite memories because it was our first of thousands of negotiations and their expressions and acceptance of this request were so stinkin' cute! Try it! What's the worst that could happen??