Wednesday, July 22, 2009

"Don't want to go" dilemma

OK, all of you who love to give unsolicited parenting advice, hopefully you like to give it when it's solicited....
Chick never wants to go. She never wants to go home from the park, she never wants to go into the house from the yard.... You know the drill. It's such a hassle for me that I don't take her out as much as I'd like because I don't have the energy to get her back home.

I told myself that it's normal 2-yr-old stuff, but yesterday at playgroup I didn't notice any of the kids being carried off kicking and screaming (ok, we don't normally have kicking and screaming, but it is occasionally the case).
So how do you all have such well-mannered & obedient children, & how can I cure Chick?
______

Here's a picture of Chick playing with the dirt in her garden spot...


I was going to say that it's a good thing that she was working in the garden (since I haven't been doing it), but then, 5 minutes later, she uprooted half of our corn. (all but one had roots intact and were salvaged).

7 comments:

Heather, Rex, etc. said...

Wow, you're garden looks great! Advice: You are a super mom and I think anything you do will be great!

Annalia said...

Parenting is the art of distraction. There's a lot of "let's go home and have a popcicle" going on at our house.

- also, I try to give them a chance to get tired of things before we leave. For example, I can't think of the last time we were at the lake for less than 3 hours. By then, everyone is tired enough to leave, whether or not they want to admit it, so there isn't as much resistance.

Sarah said...

the two things that have worked well for me are setting expectations before arriving some where (we are only going to be staying here until such and such time, and when I tell you it is time to leave, you need to leave happily if you want to EVER COME BACK AGAIN!) and giving a nice 5 minute or 10 minute warning. The key to the warning is that it doesn't actually have to be 5 or 10 minutes. It just needs to provide a transition warning for them. I have had very few instances of freaking out with these two tools and normally when there is freaking, it is because I haven't done one of the 2 things. Good luck!

Jeanne said...

Giving the transition warning was the key to our kids and eventually they get the picture that when we say 2 minutes, it means finish up and go. Have faith things will become easier =)

polly said...

yes the warning works well for us too along with the excitement about the next thing we will be doing...like having popsicles at home. yes we are missing the Old Navy windbreaker...I'm sure we will be up sometime to fetch it. No we wont be going camping up there this weekend. We are actually going camping with Kens siblings at Bryce Canyon for 4 days.

Unknown said...

Smart people already gave my answers. A five minute warning and something exciting to go home for. Whatever you can think of. Sometimes i use a game, but mostly it is a bribe of food.

Sea_Gal said...

Closure. Saying goodbye, even if it's to an inanimate object. Taking the time for that really helps my two year old to move on. Also I would wager that every two year old has kicking and screaming moments. Being little is pretty hard and confusing sometimes.