When age is a factor
This one is a bit different only because it really will vary by child. Teething, night terrors, sleepless days, sleepless nights, random tantrums, more teething, injuries, boo boos, scrapes, cuts, bruises, broken toys, broken bones, or just about any bad experience from any childhood. The biggest lesson you can learn is to accept these things will happen and take them to be chances to teach your little human how to better deal with those.
Our little man has had his fair share of the above. He is now at that age where we can have dialog but it is the sassy dialog that we often get. His personality is starting to form and his attitude towards the world is setting in. Teaching him and showing him good qualities is more important now than his first two years. He is now six and ever more curious about the world around him.
Boundaries and routines have been a great thing. At night we have our basic routine of getting ready for bed which usually comprises of putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, feeding the fish, picking out a book to read, and finally music. While it could use some polish it has been a good thing to do this every single night. It’s not guaranteed to work with all children but it has helped us.
Discipline can be tough because I grew up with spankings and we chose not to go that route. What we are doing instead is the counting and timeout. We’ll count to three and he gets a timeout for the age he is – which currently is 6 minutes.
We also use a marble system and reward good behavior. Once he fills up the container he has earned a toy. Reinforcing good behavior is a good thing because it has helped him become a bit more well-mannered.
Comments
3 responses to “Parenthood – The journey begins”
“…human beings don’t like to leave things half done or unfinished. Learn to let go of that…”
Thanks for having written this Jose. Since I read this about a month ago, I find myself referring to the concept every few days– it inspires/helps me to remind me to be able to drop something less important for something more important, even though the less important thing isn’t yet finished. Good to know that someone else has experienced the same thing and has shared it!
Good guide and advice. We live, We learn… and along the way we become Parents and our kids become better parents and teachers and engineers and entrepreneurs and Presidents.
You said it beautifully <3