Tuesday, March 8, 2011

DUH

Do you ever have one of those moments where the light bulb goes off and you feel like a crazy person?  This happens when the light bulb contains information you knew all along and somehow just misplaced in the depths of your brain.

This parenting thing is a very humbling experience. I spend so much time contemplating how fantastic and yet nuts it all is.

Anyway, my friend Patty turned me on to this website called bloglovin. It's a place to organize and manage the blogs you read. I love organizing. I love blogs. Match made in Jana world heaven.  As I'm organizing and reading (because I totally have nothing else to do right?) I stumble across a blog that references another blog concerning the unnerving world of navigating toddlerhood. I am reading one post and then reading the next on the next blog and very quickly I start to realize I am a complete moron. Here's why.

I have a degree in child development. I did a Child Life internship that revolved around distracting children in tough medical situations. I have a master's degree in early childhood education and spent three years teaching second graders where transition time can make or break your day. Keeping all of this in mind, here is what I read:

1) Marlie and Me....

"I never considered it a disruption of Marlie's time as I attempted to usher her from task to task. I was only focused on getting the job at hand done, sticking to our routine and getting through the day without the house burning down. I've been trying this method of giving Marlie a heads up when it's time to transition to a new task. It's going to take lots of practice before we can reach a truce."


2) Via Marlie and Me I continued reading this post from another blogger...


"I am a busy person, too. And a multitasker. So I don't really have any excuse as to why it's taken me this long to really internalize the fact that someone who is busy completing multiple tasks might not like it when another person comes along and declares "Stop what you're doing, because we're doing this now." To add insult to injury, that person then bodily forces the transition between activities."


HOLY CRAP. This is the key to toddlerhood. This is the answer I have been looking for. THIS is genious.


I read all of this yesterday during nap time. I decided from then on that every time we needed to transition to something I would do a whole lot of talking about it before we did. The top three things Lila has been having all out hysterics with me about are diaper changes, getting in the car, and sitting down to eat. Now when I know one of those things may be coming (or really anything that requires transition) I start talking about it. It's funny because at first she just looks at me and says "no". The more I remind her that it's coming the less of a response she has. Then, when we go to do it she just follows me and she does it. Well, she did it for the second half of the day yesterday anyway :-). 


Somehow I led myself to believe that my child would just do what came next and not worry about it. And then I sat dumbfounded by her massive meltdowns. As Lila would say "silly mommy".


1 comment:

  1. Hooray! A breakthrough! You know, sometimes you just have to hear something at the right time or in the right way.

    ReplyDelete

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