Lately, life with a 2 year old has been challenging.
One of his new things is escaping from the house. Locking the deadbolt worked for a second, then he figured that out. After a trip to Lowe's, I am the proud new owner of one of those "hotel style" bar-over-the-door locks that are a step up from the old school chain. NICE. Now I just have to convince my husband to install it.
MINE, and NO are two of his favorite new words. I could ask him if he wants to eat suckers and ice cream and watch TV all day and his answer would be...you guessed it... NO! So I resort to my favorite source to answer all my parenting questions...Google...and type in "how to get your kid to stop saying NO. What did I learn?
*they are probably hearing it from you. {what else do you say to your two year old when they are climbing on your bathroom sink eating all the toothpaste, or sitting on their baby sister smashing her head into the carpet???)
*don't ask them yes or no questions, give them choices. You know, do you want to wear the blue shirt, or the red shirt? {ok, that makes sense. Let's tell my husband who says things to him like "Bryce...do we throw food on the floor?" Um, hey honey...he doesn't get to decide that, try telling him that we do not, in fact, throw food on the floor!}
*instead of saying "no don't do that" try saying, "mommy doesn't like when you do that". {Are you flipping kidding me? My kid doesn't give a rat's ass what I like or don't like.}
If these rumors are really true, and 3 is worse than 2, I'm pretty much screwed. As soon as Bryce turns 3, Sydney will be almost 2, then my life will be complete.
As I type this, I hear nothing but silence, so I'm off to discover what he is getting into, or how much toothpaste he has eaten.
Any and all advice on how to keep my sanity and not beat my child would be appreciated. :)
3 comments:
You're not going to believe this, but my 2 year old just turned himself into a "hot mess" when he was looking over my shoulder at my laptop as I read your post and insisted that I keep the screen stationary on the photo of your boy face down in his tantrum! He's now officially face down on the living room floor screaming at me because I wanted to read the rest of the post! Meanwhile, the 10 month old is trying to climb up and type this comment.
I too have heard the rumors that 3 is harder than 2 (mostly because they can talk back more), but I have yet to discover a magic wand that can tame my already crazy toddler. We do use Time Outs and many times just the threat of a TO will help diffuse him. Sometimes ignoring the behavior works, but other times there really isn't much to be done.
If 2 is just a warmup for 3 then I'm going to need to buy a lot more wine.
Luckily, Jayce never did much of a terrible 2, but 3 has been a bit of a challenge. And Grayson is catching on and starting in on his own terrible 2 stage. (Oh, and for your sanity sake, I read in a parenting magazine that it's only half of the year that they have "control problems" which is where the tantrums come from. I've found this to be slightly true. It seems that as soon as Jayce turned 3 1/2 he started tantrum-ing much more.) I've found that giving him warnings about what's coming does help a little bit. I also started sending Jayce to his room to get over something when he starts in. That way I don't have to hear it or see it. Time outs do seem to work with us, but I do also spank sometimes (when time outs don't seem to be stopping the behavior - although I've noticed Grayson starting to hit, and I'm pretty sure he's gotten the idea from me). I also take away privileges (kids fight with me about going to bed, no reading books upstairs. Kids argue about going to grocery store, no stopping by the park first or horsey ride. Jayce won't pull up his undies or shorts after a bathroom break, it doesn't get done - although this one isn't as much of a lost privilege. I could go on and on.) I do think that offering choices is a good idea. It gives your toddler a taste of independence and control over his life - which he really doesn't have much of. We do choices about lunch, where to play, which park to go to, when to do certain things, etc.
The absolute best advice I can give, is to keep loving them. Some days, for me, it's making a conscious decision because they are driving me nuts or it's choosing to look at them like Jesus does because they seem like the devil to me. Sometimes, that makes it just a little bit easier.
Hang in there, Sara.
oh just get that hard ass look!!!! i get that with nate and msdi and they dont mess with me. i have nnever them and they dont know if i will "crash" them or not.
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