Toddler discipline continued.

I promised a review of the two books I am using to hatch my discipline plan for my toddler.

I downloaded both, "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" by Harvey Karp M.D. and "1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children ages 2-12" by Thomas w. Phelan PhD. Onto my iPad.

Whew, what a sentence! Sorry it wasn't really properly written out, but I am no longer in grad school, so that's all the effort I will put into making the information pretty.

I have both of the books on my iPad which really is super convenient and stops my baby girl from eating my books. I have been reading them during her nap times and even though I am not finished I will tell you it's a relief to have some clear ideas.

First "the Happiest Toddler on the Block" or as another mom put it, THTOTB. Like NKOTBSB but for toddler discipline! What I like about this book so far is at explains a toddlers brain/thinking in a very approachable way. Dr. Karp reminds us that toddlers are not mini adults but little beings that have "cave man" like mentalities and as a result need us as parents to relate to them on their level. This means using what he calls "toddler-ese", a way of speaking with toddlers using their language.

Dr. Karp writes that most of us probably speak to our toddler this way. An example was if a child does something they are proud of, such as go down the slide by themselves, then looks to their parent for a reaction. Our reaction probably won't be stiff, like *"That was the perfect way to get yourself from the top of the slide to the bottom". Instead we will most likely say "Wow, good job!" with an enthusiastic voice and gestures. These short statements and more animated reaction is toddler-ese.

Toddler-ese will come in handy when your lovely child is having a tantrum or being emotional in some way. I am still working on this idea for myself. I still feel silly and not sure it's working, but I am not done with the book yet. There are many more techniques and ideas that will help me to have a clear plan in place.

As for 1-2-3 Magic I just read the first chapter so far, which is an overview of the book. I love the writing style of this book so far, will write about it again once I am further along!

Thanks for sticking with my explanation, haven't done a book report in a long time!

*my quote of Dr. Karp's example, totally butchered his idea, but hope it makes some sense!

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Working on discipline.

Now that my beautiful little girl is a toddler I have entered a whole new phase of parenting. This kind of snuck up on me, I was so not prepared. I remember when I was going to the mommy class, which is through the local hospital, they talked about it one week. Baby girl was probably 10 months at the time and still army crawling and not really into anything. I half listened thinking my precious little angel won't do stuff I don't want her to do!

Really, I just couldn't imagine her walking and talking and getting into things, it seemed so far in the future! Thinking this way helped me hold on to what little babyhood that was left!

Well as soon as she started walking and her arms got long enough she discovered the cable box. You see, we have the cable box in the t.v. stand. We need access to it so we can change the channel. At first I just kept shoving it back further and further so she couldn't get it. We are the point now where we can't move it back any further and so discipline begins.

A fuzzy picture of baby girl in the act! I realize this is such a minor thing, but it's super annoying! She will push the buttons to change the channel, pause/rewind, etc. whatever we are watching or even when she is watching her own show!

I decided I needed to figure out what I wanted to do for discipline. I knew how I didn't want to discipline: no spanking, no yelling. I wanted to find a way for "positive discipline" that goes along with my belief in attachment parenting.

Some awesome moms I know recommended so books, which I promptly bought! Check back tomorrow for the titles and my reviews!

 

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