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
