Ok,while I write this my 2 year old is having a meltdown...can you moms out there please tell me some of your ideas on how to get through the 2's and enjoy them when theyassert their independence? Iam not a yeller and dont believe in spankings. I'll tell you what I do and maybe you can give me some guidance. Robbie (little) is quite passionate and I have decided that with great passion comes the ability to majorly over react. So here is how an incident today went and is still going.
Robbie dumped a huge container of plastic building blocks on the living room floor. Great fun! Then went about playing with other toys. He had lunch and then it was time for a nap. I asked him to clean up his blocks before bed. He did about 5 out of the 75 and then got distracted. So, i reminded him again that it was time to cleanup his blocks and to finish. Emma woke up and I started feeding her baby food in the living room in her high chair and told him that if the blocks were not cleaned up by the time I was done feeding Emma then he would go to timeout.As it goes he went to timeout. But he did it happily...its like he likes timeout...anyways so after timeout I explained again why he went there and reminded him again thhe it was time to pick up blocks. No dice for him....he found a car and got distracted..so i put all his "distractions" away out of sight and then asked if I could help him put them away.I even made explosion sounds as he threw them into the bucket. But it only lasted for about 7 blocks, so 12 blocks down and 62 blocks to go....so i told him no movies or Mickey Mouse until the blocks get put away. Then I put him to bed for a nap(which he did not take, he came out an hour into it and said, "NO NAP!" I put him back to bed because I think kids should nap until the age of 6!!! No dice, again. By this time it was 4 and he will not go to bed tonight if he sleeps now...awesome. I mean I remind and remind and then I use "my I mean business voice"and the timeout strategy but as it is right now....I have not let him touch his other toys and he is laying on the couch talking to himself and those blessed 62 multicolored blocks are still strewn across the floor. And even though he has melted down about not being allowed to use other toys or watch a movie until the blocks are "cleaned up" he still wont pick them up. I believe kids need to pick up their toys when they are done playing with them,just like husbands should put away their shoes when they get home and how I need to put away the stuff I use to. So, lets hear it....how do I handlle this situation with out loosing it myself and getting those 62 blocks off my floor? I am not a maid....
The Eye of the Beholder...
12 years ago
3 comments:
Hey Julie--I'm sure you'll get (or have gotten) lots of advice, but here is my two cents. I have had very similar frustrations (but with an older child (!). Obviously every child is different, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
It helps to have logical consequences. So, the logical consequence of not cleaning up toys is that the toys will be taken away for a specified period of time (a week or whatever). I tell Clara, "If you don't tidy up your toys, that means that you have too many, so if they're not cleaned up, then I'm going to take them and give them to someone who can take care of them." (or something to that effect) Another effective solution is only giving a few blocks at a time and putting the others away--give him 10 blocks to play with, and when he shows that he can put those away, then you give him more blocks to play with, etc. I realized that for Clara, sometimes she just had too much of something (e.g. in her case, kitchen play food--it came in a set of 100 for a great deal, but she didn't need that many pieces, so I put half (or more) away in her closet).
The other thing is that you just have to be patient and recognize that he is only two and that he WILL get it eventually. For Clara, at almost five, she is finally getting the concept of tidying up and doing much better. But it has taken days and months and years of slow and steady consistency. (Oh, and I've also done the hand-over-hand method of forcing her to pick up things many times, as well!).
I have very mixed feelings about time out because Clara "likes" to go to time out sometimes, too! I feel your pain...know that you are doing a great work and will be blessed. I love you, girl!
Oh, and I really have just gone through her toys and just thrown/given them away. Just be sure to only threaten something if you're going to go through with it! :-)
I am most definitely not a mom, but I do have 3 younger siblings, the youngest of which sometimes acts like a 2 year old. ;) What I can remember my mom doing to help us do what she asked was different for every child, but with the youngest there was a "punishment that fit the crime", if you know what I mean. Make sure the consequence fits the behavior. You know little dude better than anyone, so I think you are on the right track with the discipline you chose to give him. I agree that consistency is key.
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