This past week has been frustrating as a parent to say the least. I now have a two year old and it's amazing how whiny and crabby she has gotten just in the past week. Don't get me wrong she is still her bubbly self most of the time, but it seems like changing her diaper, getting her dressed, staying asleep or going to bed have been fights.
I don't like to fight with her, who does? Mike and I try to get her to calm down and then talk logically and rationally with her. Did I just say logically and rationally about talking with a 2 year old. Yep! We have always talked to her like an adult, we treat her like her own little person.
It was almost fitting then that I got an article in my email about "Why children need to be reminded over and over". I keep getting these emails from the Mom's Circle and keep thinking that I am going to unsubscribe and then a great article like this comes around.
It reminded me that even though she knows how to put her shoes on, and other things that she is still learning. That she still needs to be told things and I need to be patient with her.
A great couple of paragraphs from the article compare this to crawling
"A perfect example of that process is learning to crawl. The baby begins to rock back and forth. She’s thrilled; she didn’t know she could do that! She practices rocking back and forth and only that, for a day or so. Then she gets up on her knees. She repeatedly practices going from laying flat to getting up on her knees. Once mastered, she adds the rocking back and forth. The learning and mastering of each singular part before moving on continues until she masters crawling.
Parents stay by their infants to support, remind and help them. There’s no parental frustration because the parent realizes this is how babies learn. When a baby becomes a child however, parents tend to forget that process of learning. This is because it's not as visible; there’s more brain development than physical development happening. Parents think because the child is walking, talking and potty trained they should remember all the rules after being told once or twice. The problem with that line of thinking is the impact brain development has on a child. "
I need to remember that she is learning and remind MYSELF that this is new to her. It's like a new job, people might need to remind you to do something over and over again until you learn the way to do it, this is no different.
I think we all need reminding about the development phases our little ones go through.
I don't like to fight with her, who does? Mike and I try to get her to calm down and then talk logically and rationally with her. Did I just say logically and rationally about talking with a 2 year old. Yep! We have always talked to her like an adult, we treat her like her own little person.
It was almost fitting then that I got an article in my email about "Why children need to be reminded over and over". I keep getting these emails from the Mom's Circle and keep thinking that I am going to unsubscribe and then a great article like this comes around.
It reminded me that even though she knows how to put her shoes on, and other things that she is still learning. That she still needs to be told things and I need to be patient with her.
A great couple of paragraphs from the article compare this to crawling
"A perfect example of that process is learning to crawl. The baby begins to rock back and forth. She’s thrilled; she didn’t know she could do that! She practices rocking back and forth and only that, for a day or so. Then she gets up on her knees. She repeatedly practices going from laying flat to getting up on her knees. Once mastered, she adds the rocking back and forth. The learning and mastering of each singular part before moving on continues until she masters crawling.
Parents stay by their infants to support, remind and help them. There’s no parental frustration because the parent realizes this is how babies learn. When a baby becomes a child however, parents tend to forget that process of learning. This is because it's not as visible; there’s more brain development than physical development happening. Parents think because the child is walking, talking and potty trained they should remember all the rules after being told once or twice. The problem with that line of thinking is the impact brain development has on a child. "
I need to remember that she is learning and remind MYSELF that this is new to her. It's like a new job, people might need to remind you to do something over and over again until you learn the way to do it, this is no different.
I think we all need reminding about the development phases our little ones go through.
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1 comments:
Thank you for this, Jess - we're going through a similar phase and it's nice to get this reminder.
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