My sweet baby girl who very frequently surprises us with new adorable little faces, or new words, or while driving in the car repeats "I love you," over and over again, has also just started some not so cute patterns of behavior that I hope do not stick around for long! One of them is that she just discovered a higher pitched scream that she love to pull out while we are driving in the car. Of course to get her to stop I attempted scolding her or giving her legs a little squeeze, but it would not really help out the situation. So, yesterday I decided to just ignore the behavior. I hoped that if she did not get a reaction from me then I would not be reinforcing the behavior and causing it to continue. Sure enough it helped. She did not completely stop screaming but she didn't do it as often or for as long, (I also got some earplugs in the car which just help to block out the high pitch's of her scream, but allows me to still focus on driving and not going mad, and still be aware of everything around me.) If you have a screamer perhaps you can try this technique and see if it helps.
The second and much more annoying habit that has been learned by my little angel is that she loves to push, shove and hit. The other day I was at story time at the library reading Rose a book when a little girl came over to hear the story. Before I knew it was going to happen Rose had pushed this little girl in the face hard enough for her to stick out her bottom lip and get teary eye'd. I felt so bad and somewhat like I am a bad Mom because I have not taught my 18 month old to get along with other kiddo's yet...but then again maybe all 18 month old children go through this phase and the parents each go through the mortification of trying to figure out how to fix the problem before you have enemies everywhere you go because your child is the mean one. We have tried time out (we put her in her crib for 1 1/2 minutes) but she tends to really enjoy her crib time and doesn't even cry, so time out is a happy place for her, and a happy place for me to have her be, when war breaks out between my angel daughter and her angel friends.
What are techniques you've done with your children to teach them the art of being kind to others?
Saturday, September 25, 2010
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First off, I love and miss you tons Amber!!! Second, I think every kid goes through that phase and they're still young enough that it'll take them a while to learn what exactly they're doing wrong... As for time outs, we starting putting Houston in the corner at about the same time, around 18 months. We make sure there's nothing in the corner and he doesn't get toys, blankets, cups... whatever. The first few times we'd have to grab him and put him back in the corner several times before he learned that he was supposed to stay there, but eventually he got it and now he's a pro! He even make-believes that his toys hit eachother and have to go to time out in a corner. Then once they're out they say sorry and I love you... it's hilarious! Anyways, good luck!! She'll figure it out before you know it!!
ReplyDeleteYah, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that EVERY child hits at some point or another. I have no doubt you are doing everything right and that you have nothing to worry about. I would agree that the corner has seemed to work the best for us. As long as there is nothing at all that is Fun about the corner you choose. I would say it also works best if you use the same corner as much as possible. We started around 18 months as well. We weren't sure when she would be quite ready for the "time-out" concept, but I'm sure the "right" time is different for every child, so you might as well start it sooner than later so that when they are ready, it can be that much more effective. You are a great mom, and Rose is a great little girl.
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