Sep 24 2008
Who Are Those Masked Moms?
In my weekly perusal of Internet parenting forums I was struck recently by what I perceived to be “Perfect Parent Posts” on a message board about toddler behavior. These women (I didn’t see any dads on this particular board) had brilliant ideas for managing insane toddler tantrums and refusals. They almost all said these techniques work every time.
Whoa? Really? Here’s my experience: I ask my son to do something (anything) and he says “no.” At that point I try one of the techniques I read about.
I say, “Let’s play a game. We’ll see how many cars we can put in this box in a minute.”
Toddler response: “No.”
Me: “Okay, let’s sing the Putting Cars Away song.” Yes, this sounds dumb to me too but I read in a newsletter that it works every time.
Toddler: “No.”
Me: “You said you wanted to color. Either we can put the cars away now or you can’t color tonight.” I read that giving them a choice helps them feel decisive and more likely to agree. My son doesn’t have a problem being decisive but I thought I’d try anyway.
Toddler: “No thank you.”
What the heck does this mean? No thank you to putting away the cars or to the coloring - or both? At least he’s polite but I’m astounded by those who post brilliant parenting advice on forums while I struggle along.
My brilliant parenting advice for the day: Nothing work every time! If someone says it does, s/he is lying or doesn’t really have a kid.
hmmm, I wonder if they were paid to say such things….I don’t know of anything that works every time on a toddler. I used to work in daycare and often worked with toddlers….if something worked every time, it would tell me that your child is slow and not learning as quickly as he or she should be. As they learn reasoning and consequences, their reaction to things changes…. As annoying as it is, I say it’s good that you toddler doesn’t react to things the same every time….
~Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/
I love it - so true. Our boys sound very alike.
And I’m so dumb…I said I’d check out your blog - without even looking at who you were. I love your blog and have looked at it a bunch of times.
Yeah…like I said, it was a rough night.