My 3 year old and WANT WANT WANT

So this past December was my son's 3rd birthday as well as his 4th Christmas. This year was also the first year he truly understood what that all meant and the process of receiving gifts for his birthday and Christmas. However, because of both of those occasions being so close together it has turned him into this crazy needy ungrateful monster. I don't know what to do! He recently became extremely into Spiderman, and he just wants spiderman this and spiderman that. And for birthday/Christmas combined he got pretty much everything he had asked for. But he is still constantly thinking of new things to ask for EVERYDAY and if we say no he gets so upset. I mean I know that's typical child behavior to want things but he never used to ask for things before we started talking about his birthday coming up. Since then he has just been so out of hand with it. Today we went to walmart and I have been wanting to get a hamper for his bedroom so of course I wanted a spiderman one and I found one there, as well as a $5 poster for his wall. He was excited that he was getting those, and then turns around and says "I want spiderman shoes". I was so annoyed. He just never seems satisfied anymore. I know part of the problem is probably me buying him things when we go to the store which I have a bad habit of doing. But besides not doing that what else can I tell him? I've tried explaining you don't get things just because you want them, you can't have everything you want, everything I can think of. Nothing is working.

every commercial on tv its "i want that" i just tell him xmas just came, he got a bunch of new stuff,and hes going to have to wait a few months til his birthday. but just keep telling him he just got stuff, and he doesnt need more.not much else you can do its normal for a child to want more no matter what

Quoting ×ø×K·ßear×ø×:" every commercial on tv its "i want that" i just tell him xmas just came, he got a bunch of new stuff,and ... [snip!] ... him he just got stuff, and he doesnt need more.not much else you can do its normal for a child to want more no matter what"

Yea we've told him that too, plenty of times. I guess all we can do is just keep beating it into his brain. :p

All you can really do is keep reinforcing the fact that he wont always get things that he wants. He will understand it eventually.

Stop getting him things. If you go to the store with the intention of getting him something tell him before you go in that he is not to ask for anything, if he does walk out. If youre running errands and he wants something while you're grocery shopping say "no, mommies not here for that". If you decide to get him something and he throws a fit because it's "the wrong thing" or he "wants something else" put what you have back and go directly to check out (cause he's probably gonna be screaming). Everytime you leave the store tell him exactly what he did wrong and how to act correctly in the future. I would start teaching him now, I let my Ds get away with it until he was 4 by then I practically had to drag him out of the store kicking and screaming, but it only took him a few shopping trips to catch on.

Both my girls are like that (my 6 year olds birthday is on 20th of December) I found, that everywhere we went it was "I want this, I don't have this one, you need to buy me this.... I want, I want)
We are working on it, and they are getting a bit better.... we have had some major in store tantrums from my 3 year old though. I've just made sure when we go places, I don't buy them anything. I had the bad habit of buying them a small $1 thing if they were being good in the shop. Instead... I now tell them that if they are good in the shop, we will do something special together at home.

Just keep reminding him that he just had a birthday and xmas and got tons of new stuff. My 3 year old has a november birthday so we went through a similar thing. I just told her if she didnt like any of her new toys that I would give them away to other children who didnt have any toys and im sure they would appreciate them more. She still asks but the tantrums of not getting are going away.

Quoting Your friendly n00berhood :" Stop getting him things. If you go to the store with the intention of getting him something tell him ... [snip!] ... I practically had to drag him out of the store kicking and screaming, but it only took him a few shopping trips to catch on."

Love this advice. Thank you. Should be common sense but sometimes you need to actually be told to get how to do it. I need to be strong and say no!! lol. So hard sometimes.

Every time Heathen says "I want...." I say "I want a million dollars, but its not going to happen" She went from "I want..." to "May I please have..."
Better, but when it still came to toys and crap, we cut it out quick. We would ask her what she wants to get rid of to make room for whatever she asked for. She wouldn't want to get rid of anything, so she never got anything.

Quoting Manda♥Joseph:" Love this advice. Thank you. Should be common sense but sometimes you need to actually be told to get how to do it. I need to be strong and say no!! lol. So hard sometimes."

It's definitely hard, it seems like they go from your perfect, well behaved toddler to satan incarnate (Okay thats an exaggeration ) overnight. I think it catches everyone by surprise, which is why it took me until he was 4 to realize I was ruining my child lol.

Quoting Your friendly n00berhood :" It's definitely hard, it seems like they go from your perfect, well behaved toddler to satan incarnate ... [snip!] ... I think it catches everyone by surprise, which is why it took me until he was 4 to realize I was ruining my child lol."

Yes definitely not helping him by letting it continue. My siblings are SO spoiled and they are teenagers now, and still think they can have anything they want. I don't want to be dealing with that when mine is a teen.

Quoting Manda♥Joseph:" Yes definitely not helping him by letting it continue. My siblings are SO spoiled and they are teenagers ... [snip!] ... are teenagers now, and still think they can have anything they want. I don't want to be dealing with that when mine is a teen."

Me neither. My oldest is 5 now and I'm having to stand my ground against back talk now lol. Rewards are a good thing when they're 3 to 4. So I would definitely get him something occasionally when he behaves, I used to surprise DS instead of asking him what he wanted. I didn't/don't do it everytime he''s good in the store but I make sure he knows his cooperation is appreciated sometimes with words, sometimes with a special toy. I havn't bought him a toy in a while though, he doesn't ask and seems to be more content with the things he has already.