Thursday, November 4, 2010

Funny story

Eric was in bed last night thumbing through Dr. Sears' book, Discipline. I've been reading it lately to find ways to deal with Logan's tantrums. Spoiler alert: There is no magic solution for solving all of your toddler's behavior issues. Drat. Anyway, Eric said, "Hey, this is interesting. It says that toddlers crave order and that you should shelve his toys on shelves instead of heaped in crates or boxes. (We put many of his toys in our toy-chest/ottomans and storage crates.) And it suggests installing eye-level hooks for hanging coats and clothes. That's a good way to teach him how to put his stuff away!"

"Yes," I said, and thought to myself of the numerous pairs of shoes and clothing items of Eric's that are usually strewn all over the living room and bedroom floor. "Will we teach you at the same time?"

1 comment:

EM Hum said...

We have a strip of hooks down low for the kids and one up higher for us in the front hall. A few years ago, I also bought a shoe rack. Whenever we come in, coats must be hung and shoes must be on the shoe rack (or rug). Works for us.

Re: discipline, there is no magic bullet. But consistency is a MUST. If you threaten, you have to follow through. And sometimes, one of you will do something that the other cringes at, but you have to follow each other (and talk about why you don't like what happened later on w/o the kid around). If those kids ever get a whiff of being able to separate you two and work their manipulation, they will use it when they get older (ha ha)