A stubborn hand tie makes your home unsafe. The energy radiates and is completely used to do everything that doesn’t make you happy, it sometimes seems. Your child has now also invented “Indian deafness” and you are sometimes short of resources. Your toddler has become a toddler. A toddler can be very laborious. They are no longer so dependent on you and are constantly looking for boundaries to cross. Some are very adventurous, some you have to keep busy all day, but they all have one thing in common, they are curious. At this age they start to become really naughty and it is important that he understands very clearly from you what is allowed and what is not.
This article is largely based on my own experiences, after having 3 daughters in 4 years that is quite a few. Not only do the girls not look much alike on the outside, they are also very different on the inside. We had to approach all 3 in a different way, but the result was the same for all 3: cozy, independent little ones who entered the toddler phase cheerfully and full of self-confidence.
In this article
- Development
- Potty trained
- Why
- The todler
- Affectionate
- Manners
- Independent
- Conclusion
Development
Potty trained
Your child will start toilet training from about the age of 2. Some people are a little faster at it than others. Don’t make an issue of it, it will happen naturally and they will all become one. Reward when things go well, but don’t punish if you miss, just make sure you have an extra pair of pants in your bag. Bed-wetting is no longer necessary, nowadays you have nice pants that work as a diaper so that it seems that they no longer need a diaper at night. Here too: reward if the pants are dry in the morning, but don’t make a fuss if that is not the case.
My eldest was potty trained at the age of 2, a new sister had arrived and she thought diapers belonged to babies, not to her. She regularly had accidents because she often did not have time to go to the toilet. Things also sometimes went wrong at night (you didn’t have those nice pants back then and she refused to wear a diaper), I was a little less happy about that, but in general she thought the accidents were worse than I did. It was a period when I always carried 3 spare pairs of underwear and cycling shorts in my bag when we went somewhere.
Why
There are toddlers who don’t say a word yet, but there are some who chat all day long. Some are so bad that you are internally happy when they keep talking for 5 minutes. There are those who only start talking at the end of their toddler years, usually their motor development is rapid, but that is not always necessary. Once they start talking, it doesn’t take long before they enter the why phase. Everything you say comes with a why? and your answer is invariably rewarded with the next why? for not one explanation seems to be satisfactory. This why is a combination of eagerness to learn and trying out. There are things your child really wants to know, but it can also become a game. With his why he can keep you talking for a long time and it makes it seem like you are having a real conversation with him. That’s what he wants, after all he’s been imitating adults all day long. Don’t be fooled and calmly end the why game when it no longer leads anywhere. By taking your child seriously and talking to him a lot and explaining what you are doing or what you are going to do, you will go a long way to suppressing his thoughts.
The todler
Affectionate
Toddlers can be very affectionate. Sometimes a little too much; my 2 youngest were practically stuck to me. The youngest refused to give anyone outside our family even a glance, the middle one was an extreme mama’s boy. Without rejecting them, I tried to loosen them from the start, after all, she had to be prepared for kindergarten (the eldest was a lot more adventurous and had already been in the toddler pub for 2 years before she went to kindergarten). This separation is often more difficult for the parents than for the child, even though it sometimes seems not to be.
Whenever we went out to work, we were always waved goodbye by a few sad children, so that we drove out of the street with a lump in our throat. When I called the babysitter a little later, it turned out that those dragons had been playing happily for a long time. As soon as we were out of sight, they just went back to business as usual.
Manners
Toddlers can be real terrorists. If you were too soft in the toddler phase (and they realize that very quickly), they will not suddenly start obeying on their own. You really have to be very consistent and strict now. No thank you? Then take it away again and even if he screams bloody murder; When you get something, you politely say thank you. They can easily throw the paper of that candy neatly into the trash can themselves. Saying hello politely, it’s all part of it and they are now at the stage where they have to learn all that.
Independent
Doing the sef slowly becomes you doing it. The novelty has worn off and it is much easier when it is done for you. Many mothers let themselves be pushed all day long, while their offspring can easily do it themselves. Sometimes this is also out of convenience, you can do it yourself faster than if you have to wait until your worm finally puts that sock on. However, it is not wrong to occasionally take a little more time and force them to do things themselves. When he goes to kindergarten, it would be nice if he could at least pull up his pants or tie his shoelaces.
Girls are generally a bit quicker at those things, but that’s also because boys are often smarter at making things work for them and mothers generally fall for that as well. That remains the case, just look at the men around you, they usually like to be taken care of.
Conclusion
The toddler phase is a very fun phase in which a lot happens. It is also a phase in which you must be aware that your child is capable of much more than you think and starts to react against you. He doesn’t do this in a visible way, but by being Indian deaf, by fooling you by pretending he doesn’t understand something or by crying to get his way. In short, he’s going to play you. At least, he will try because if all goes well, you will figure him out and you will play the game, but according to your rules. Treat him as a full-fledged person, not like a baby, and set him free within the boundaries you set. Enjoy his presence to the fullest for a while because in the next phase he will go to kindergarten and that will be the end of being together 24 hours a day.