I haven't mastered much of this parenting gig, but I will say we successfully adopted a trick a couple years ago from a friend about managing transitions for the wee ones. And as anyone who has asked their toddler to "put away their playdoh so we can go to the grocery store where mommy will complain about the current price of grapes and avoid the odd cashier* in checkout lane number 4" knows, transitions can be testy.
Set a timer: pick a timer, any timer. For a solid year, we lived by the "When the clock goes 'beep beep beep'..." way of transitioning to other activities and errands. The only way the kids used to leave the park is if my phone went off using the "dog barking" alarm. Man, that was a good trick in my pocket for a while. Now transitions aren't that much of an issue anymore. There they go again, growing up and stuff.
I think the timer method works because it puts the onus on a third-party; young children are dimly fooled into thinking it's out of your hands. Plus it acknowledges you are providing them remaining time to finish what they are doing.
True story: when I came out of the shower a few days ago, I was confused why the boys were dressed and all ready for the day. It turns out they had set a 2 minute timer for themselves to see if they could get dressed (which explained the heavier breathing and twisted pants). I'm sure there's a childhood complex brewing somewhere in there**, but I'll take it for now!
*No, seriously. His name is Michael. But he pronounces it as "Meekayl" to be quirky.
**At age 27, Landon's left side subtly twitches anytime a timer goes off.
No comments:
Post a Comment