Monday, February 16, 2009

terrible twos: Time To Walk

The comes a time when a mom can't or choices not to care her tot all the time any more. I like to teach Girlygirl when I say something I mean it. This is hard when it comes to her walking when I say. I try my best not to pick her up when I have told her she has to walk. In order to get her to walk I have to get her to think or do something else. Here are some examples of what I do:
  1. Walk in a different way: slow then fast, big and little steps, march, walk backwards, be a train, ect.
  2. I talk about where we are going then say in a excited voice come on lets go. This works better the younger they are. It is getting hard to use this with Girlygirl.
  3. I let her know today you have to walk when we are out. When she wants me to hold her I nicely tell her "Remember you are a little girl now and little girls walk." (I don't say big girl because I needed her to understand that there is a difference between her and the kids I nannied. They can do more than her because the are big.)
  4. I know she can't walk that much so that helps knowing her limits. Walking into the store but needs to be able to get cart in the store. I do at time push her a little more then she is willing to do. (this does make her mad and often does cry out of anger but I try to stay up beat and encourage her)
  5. When all else fails I stand behind her and hold under her arms and make her walk to the place I said. (tip: don't make this fun. if the laugh or seem to like it stop and hold their hand and try walking in a fun way.)
Take it little by little and some days will be great and some will not. Just remember to have fun when you can by making it a game. Who cares if we look silly we are teaching our kids to be great people.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been making Abigail (my 2 year old) walk for months now. I am currently pregnant and I had to go on bedrest from carrying her all the time--she is 33pounds. When she wants me to I explain that she is too heavy and it hurts mommy's tummy. Not sure if that is a good idea because I don't want her to have anger towards the new baby---so far no anger--she will respond by rubbing my tummy and saying "all better"--thinking it already hurts. A good thing about not carrying her and not being able to really hold her on my lap well is that she wants her daddy more. FINALLY!! When she doesn't want to walk I tend to walk silly with her or I make a game out of it. For her being silly still works and I don't care what others think. When you have a screaming two year old acting silly sounds great to me!

ED said...

Catching up on my blogs, LOL.

We have this problem more with one daughter than the other. I. loves to walk and run, and can easily be persuaded to move on her own. L. is still very attached, and loves to be near me. Funny, since as a baby she was more aloof.

We also make the distinction between "little girl" and "big girl", for similar reasons - they have a lot of older friends from our prayer group, and we really need the distinction.