Tuesday Toddler Tales


Raising a 4 year old is perplexing and often, exasperating, with all the "why?"s and stalling and we all know Preschoolers are famous for their manipulative tactics but here lately, Emily has really been tugging at our heartstrings with her antics.  

During a heated discussion, a time-out, an explanation of how disappointing her bad choices are, she will throw her arms around us and through a teary, choked-up voice she will exclaim; "but I just want you to be happy!".  *sigh*  What do we do with that?!?! 

Trying to explain to her that her actions are what cause that little wrinkle to form between my eyebrows and my wearing a frown is like trying to teach a dog how to load a dishwasher: impossible. 

So, what DO we do? 

We are going out of our way to tell her how happy "a, b, c, d" makes us, praising her good choices and behaviors, and hugging/kissing her and pointing out our giant smiles to her so she can see how happy we are.  Basically, trying to offer 5 praises for every 1 scold, as we have all been told to do since they were toddlers.  Anyone else come through this... alive?  :) 

Comments

  1. You just gotta stick with it. It will pay off! She'll never be perfect - that would be too easy and boring to boot ;-) I know it's hard, but be glad that she has a feisty, independent spirit and that she trusts you both enough to show her 'less than perfect' side. If you stick with it and are consistent one day you'll just notice that a week has gone by with out any major incident.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts