Friday, August 10, 2007

Parenting

As your kid grows your parenting changes and adapts. When Lucas was a newborn parenting was breastfeeding, snuggling and keeping the baby safe. Now that Lucas is getting to be two we are finding new ways of parenting. Last night felt like we were giving ultamatiums for stuff, one more bite of food or no banana bread, help clean up or you are going right to bed. The good news is it usually seems to work. Is this how most parents parent toddlers? My theory is that he needs to learn what's acceptable and if he doesn't want to do what's acceptable there are consequences for it. A couple of times we have threatened a time out, but when we say, if you do this again you'll have to stand in the corner. He says okay. So I'm eventually going to have to make the corner a "bad" place. The good news is after all the "threats" last night he did a great job of listening this morning, so it does make me feel like we're doing something right. =)

Enjoy your weekend.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

2 comments:

Lori Aitken said...

Consequences...hallelujah! Shout it from the rooftops because most parents nowadays don't have the backbone to teach their children about consequences! In my opinion/personal experience, consequences are your single most important tool in disciplining your little one. There are just 2 tricks...find the right consequence that will be the best deterrent for your individual child (ie: for Lucas, taking away a cherished toy for a specified period of time might be a bigger deterrent than going to the corner) and being consistent. If you say "If you do that one more time you'll lose Lightning McQueen for 15 minutes" then make sure that the instant he repeats the bad behaviour you take the toy away. Occasionally, he may throw a little tantrum as a result but remind him of what he's done and reassure him that in 15 minutes (in this example) he'll get the toy back. Set a timer that he can see or hear and when it goes off...he gets the toy back.
You're doing such an amazing job with him already and he's so bright and has such a huge vocabulary that he will learn the concept of consequences very quickly.

Keep us posted so we know how it's going!

Love,

Anonymous said...

Hmmm
I remember a tantrum
and I'm smiling
as he gets older you must make it clear that he has a choice to make and it is his choice.
The consequece is there and won't change
that way he will eventually see it as he is in control and not coming from the big bad mean one.
He can choose to clean his room and go on a date or choose to not clean his room and stay home tonight.
Make sure he is clear on why it is important because "adult" learners need to know why. THe vacuum needs to be passed once a week and I do it Friday night - not sure why I do it Friday night. lol :)