Young kids — namely those between the ages of 1 and 4 — haven’t developed good coping skills yet. They tend to just lose it instead.

You can try and anticipate the onset of a meltdown. “If a child is tired, stressed, or hungry, this raises the possibility of having a tantrum,” explains Dr. Rhea Lopa-Ramos, a child psychologist from St. Luke’s Medical Center Quezon City.

But at the end of the day, all you can do is take charge of the situation if and when it happens.