I have been doing a wee bit of self reflecting in the last couple of days as I watch my little baby girl transform into an independent toddler and wondering what the next stage holds for us. As I mentioned in the last post with the failed time out lesson I'm beginning to think that we are a little over our heads as Hailey heads into toddlerhood or as some may call it the "terrible twos". I consider myself as a pretty patient person, lack of sleep, lack of time and handling Hailey on my own most of the time has nothing on me, but I fear that I will be tested in the next couple of months. I have noticed that she has a tendency to be a little bit of a diva sometimes when it comes to deviating from what it is she wants to do, and I was wondering is that something that she gets from me? or could there be another guilty party hanging out in the family tree somewhere? I'm pretty sure it's not Mitch modeling this behaviour for her so where on Earth is she learning it from? Overall I do believe that you are a product of your environment, paired with parenting structure and a lot of love I think you will produce a pretty normal kid someday ready to be released into the wild. But there is this side of me that thinks man "you act just like your..... enter family member name here" even if that person has been totally absent from your life for the majority of it, maybe we can't escape totally from our DNA. Pretty scary considering my gene pool, let's just hope that most of the retard gene gets bypassed for some of the better options, let's just hope that natural selection will do it's job. I do know a lot of people that use family history as an excuse to suck at life, that's not really the point I'm trying to make here I just am left thinking, if it's not Mitch or me teaching her this behavior then it really must be coming from a deeper level. I know Hailey is one smart little cookie, the tantrums were bound to hit our house at some point, I know it was delusional of me to think that we could get away from it altogether but I'm hoping that with a few tricks we can sidetrack the majority of them. I know she is only one, it's hard to say what will happen or not happen with her in the next couple of years, but my feisty, strong-willed, independent little lady certainly has me a little on edge when it comes to me thinking about the teenage years. Bottom line is I guess I really don't want to fail her by not giving her the skills she will need to be a success, and it all starts with what we are doing today that will have an effect of what happens tomorrow. I best be brushing up on my Dr.Phil episodes, seems like that dude knows a little something about somethings.
L
1 comment:
Now I don't have kids, but I do have many friends that have kids. One thing that has been fairly consistent is their "dislike" of their children for short periods of time. This seems to often coincide with the 2ish age (coincidence - i think not).
Our friend Steve tells great stories about his youngest son Spencer and his NO phase. Steve is a pretty chillaxed guy but his patience was tried at times by his son that was being disagreeable with most everything.
It seems to be a "testing boundaries" phase. Maybe some start earlier, some later. I imagine there will be many different incarnations of this phase.
I remember my little sister being a particularly stubborn kid. She drove my mom to tears on a few occasions out of frustration. My mom likes to remind my sister of this on occasion to this day..lol
So go with the flow and on those days that your patience is particularly tried, hand her to Mitch and say...I am going out for a glass of wine...and come on over!!!
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