3 year old with horrible tantrums
I'm writing this question for a friend of mine who has a 3 year old son. She is at her wit's end with his tantrums and is starting to wonder if they are normal or not. Since I'm not a mother yet I don't feel I have enough experience to judge that, but maybe someone here has an opinion? Here are a couple of examples of his tantrums:
The other day he discovered that the car has overhead lights on the inside of it. He loves lights so he wanted to turn them on and off, on and off. My friend decided to not let him do it at all, because it drains the battery. Well he had one of his tantrums and screamed and screamed and kept trying to reach the lights. He almost managed to get himself out of his car seat a couple of times (this was going on while my friend was driving!). She also has a 6 month old baby, and so when they reached home finally, she had to take the baby and the groceries in the house first, because the 3 year old refused to leave the car and continued screaming. Then she had to force him out of the car, and he got away from her and ran back to the car several times before she finally had to literally drag him into the house, kicking and screaming. Once in the house he continued to scream and cry for a long time. All together the tantrum lasted about 90 minutes. He has other tantrums like this several times a week. He has even lay down in the middle of the street to have a tantrum, and she's had to drag him to get him to the other side of the street before the light changes. All this with her 6 month old in tow. She gets very little help from her husband, who is extremely lazy.
Anyway basically just wondering if tantrums to this extent are normal with some kids. Thanks.