A month or two ago, I decided it was a good time to start introducing Ben to words like “no”, “stop”, and “don’t”. I figured he had gotten old enough to where he could understand what it meant, so when he would go to pull all the DVDs out of our DVD case, he would hear the word “NO!”.
Unfortunately, every single time I say the word no to him, I get a face similar to the one in the picture. He apparently finds it hilarious. He’ll smile at first, making it incredibly hard for me to hold my stern, serious, disciplinary face. And the longer I try to stay looking …
Another thing I have noticed about Isaac that has changes since he entered the aptly-titled terrible twos is his amazingly selective listening skills!
It’s pretty impressive, really, and if I wasn’t completely positive this is a new fun-filled phase for my toddler, I might be concerned that he has a hearing problem.
Yes, that’s how bad it is sometimes!
Listen to your mother, young man!
We will be playing and Isaac will decide his toy truck has somehow wronged him and responds by throwing it.
Mommy gently reminds son that it’s not nice to throw our toys, and that it hurts them.
Son appears to be listening, but then less than 15 …
As I explained in Part I, in my eyes, tattle-tails are no-good. When Michael reaches that age/stage where tattling becomes the thing to do, I plan on using a few different approaches to strongly discourage further tattling. I really can’t stand it; it’s nagging to my ears and I don’t want tattling going on with my children. My sister-in-law says that if there’s not blood or someone is not seriously being hurt from the deed done, she doesn’t want to hear about it. She encourages her eight children to “fix their relationship” with their siblings, involve no one else other than the persons involved, and don’t bring the issue to …
Surely this sweet thing won't become a tattle-tail.
Recently, I watched my neighbor’s son for a few hours. Christopher will be four years old this spring. Christopher and Michael play often together, but it’s usually when his mom is around. This time she wasn’t, and it was a very different experience.
I’m not sure if it’s Christopher’s age, personality, or the effects of his parent’s nurturing, but he constantly tattled on Michael, even when it wasn’t warranted. Michael’s train table presented many problems for the two boys because they both wanted the same engine, track, etc at the same time. As I sat and watched them play while I nursed Maeve, I thought to myself, I don’t want Michael to behave this way when he gets older.
So I keep going back and forth on this…
At first I thought I would never ever physically discipline Isaac, despite the fact I was occasionally spanked and turned out fine just like millions of other adults who were also spanked.
It just seems…harsh, maybe? Unnecessary, perhaps? I just didn’t like the idea of hitting my kid, and was sure I could find another method of getting the point across without tanning that hide.
No issues with those who were spankers, I just wasn’t planning on doing so myself, that’s all.
Is this acceptable or not?
Until the other day that Isaac hauled off and smacked me really hard right in the …
This is how we found him in our bed.
A few things have recently made nap time a little more complicated for Michael. The first is that he received a train table from Santa for Christmas and it’s in his room. He plays trains for a while before he falls asleep in the early afternoon, which I’m fine with. As long as he’s in his room for some much needed quiet time, I don’t care if he sleeps or not. (Yesterday Michael napped for two hours underneath his train table.)
Now that Michael can open doors, he thought he could just walk out of his room when he was suppose …
