Thursday, September 11, 2008

Big Girl Words

If you are the parent of a toddler, you have on more than one occasion asked said toddler to "use your words" instead of screaming incoherently. The reason being you can help them if you know what the heck is going on.

If the tantrum is because they can't find a favorite toy, great. Why don't we both look for it together.

If they are hungry, that is easily remedied.

If they are tired, you can move them towards a nap or bed (hopefully).

If they want to do something they are not supposed to do, well hopefully you can distract them with something else.

But the key is having them verbalize their emotions to let you know what is wrong.

Lets look at how we at the But Why Mommy household have put this theory into action. Bunny is an incredibly verbal child and we have encouraged her to verbalize her emotions.

Exhibit A:

"Frustrated. Momma, where baby lizard?"
"I don't know baby, let's look."
"Frustrated, momma."
"He's not here. He's not over there." Now momma is getting frustrated.
"Frustrated, momma. Where baby lizard?"
"Let's retrace our steps. We got up, got the lizards out. You played with them. Momma vacuumed . . ." Has sickening realization, runs to vacuum, pulls out bottom half of small rubber lizard. Oh no.
"FRUSTRATED!" Real tears streaming down her face. "Fix him momma. Fix him."
"Momma can't fix him, baby."
"FRUSTRATED!"
"Would you like to watch Dora?"
"Yes." Tears subsiding, no longer frustrated.

So the theory doesn't work quite as well in practice. But at least we all know how we are feeling.

6 comments:

Z said...

I'm just impressed she knows "frustrated!" !!!

MamaCarter said...

that is heartbreakingly cute. wish Monkey understood frustrated.....last night it took both M and me working, hard, to get her into the bath. she was "frustrated" that we wouldn't let her watch tv and just plain ole lost her sh*t!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx said...

Oh, no! Baby lizard!

We have duplicates of Boopie's absolute favorite toys... but of course not everything! I'm sure this will be me one day.

Kate Coveny Hood said...

This cracked me up. I could just picture the mangled lizard. My kids are always handing me something like a broken piece of chalk or a crayon to "pix" (fix). I appreciate their faith in my abiliy to heal the world - but you know...some things can't be pixed.

I LOVE the new picture - adorable!

Anonymous said...

That is such a funny story, I can just picture her saying all that to you....The new picure is sooo cute...

anymommy said...

I'd say it's working beautifully. And, she's brilliant. I would die of happiness if my three year olds used the word frustrated!