Numbers

Terrible Twos

"Terrible Twos" is an expression describing the difficult behavior of some children aged two to three years.

How It's Used

“Either way, as Rolling Stone went forward with the business of seducing each new group of 16-year-olds, the genius of Jann's ruthless content strategy gradually became apparent. No matter how spectacular one group of staffers might be, they all shared one problem from which there is no escape—they grew older. Everybody, that is, except Jann himself. His petulant fits and rages actually seemed frozen at an age considerably south of 16—think 'terrible 2' and you'll get the idea.”

“This three-part, three-hour documentary [‘Teen Species’] about adolescence hits us with an unscientific title that makes it sound like a cross between MTV and Animal Planet.  Teenagers are not a separate species, of course, but human beings like the rest of us—however much some parents of teenagers might be inclined to disagree.  They are no more alien, say, than a middle-aged man in midlife crisis of a toddler undergoing the turmoil of the Terrible Twos.”

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