Skip to main content

Dog days of August

I haven't been blogging as much as usual lately. This is mostly because I can only tell so many stories of how Luke is getting into trouble these days without making you all think badly of me (how many times does he have to pour the dish soap on the steps before she puts it under the sink, anyway!).

So I will tell you the story told by one of my friends who has survived the toddlerhood of a boy: when she went in to work on Monday, she said that she hadn't gotten anything done that weekend except keep her son from getting hurt. That was challenging enough.

I will also add something from The Emotional Life of the Toddler by Alicia F. Lieberman (quite a helpful book actually):
Home observations of mothers and their preschoolers show that mild to moderate conflicts take place once every three minutes, and major conflicts occur at the rate of three per hour. The younger the child, the more frequent these disturbances.
hmm, I think I'll read that book again.
Labels:

Comments

Lenise said…
Oh, thank heavens!! You're allowed a few extras with three, right? We left the mall three times today- the third one stuck 'cuz it was past naptime anyway. Isaac is showing us what the "terrible twos" are all about. Jay waited until he turned 3 to get an attitude. I feel like Isaac is starting to get the idea that calm and polite attracts more flies or however that saying goes...
August 26, 2008 at 11:13 PM
mathmom said…
Luke's problem is that he is hard to correct, and keeps going back to things I've determined are off limits. So each confrontation multiplies to 4 or 5 or more confrontations, whereas the girls are old enough that if they don't obey the first (or second =) time I can just send them to their room.
August 29, 2008 at 8:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...
8 comments
Read more

Kindergarten Fashions

I was informed the other day that Eleanor wants to get a new thermos. She lost the o-ring from her purple Tinkerbell thermos, and I have so far resisted buying another one for her, on the theory that you shouldn't just replace things that are broken since it doesn't encourage being careful with one's things. I have been sending her with the sippee cups that she has been using since she was a year old, which she has resisted giving up to the point of becoming partly dehydrated when I don't let her use them at home. Here's how the conversation went. Eleanor: Anna and Jane said today at lunch, " Kindergartners don't drink from sippee cups!" Me: That's very interesting. Eleanor: They are supposed to drink from thermoses. Me: Eleanor, would you like a new thermos? Eleanor: Yes! Get the purple one, please. If there is a crayon one, that's the one I want.... Who knew that peer pressure started in kindergarten? The sippee cups are perfectly f...
4 comments
Read more

Girl toys

A friend just had a post about her son's desire to have a pink bejewled play phone (she and the people who comment have great things to say: here it is so you can read it). Thinking about her post made me very glad that for girls 5 and under (which is all I have experienced lately) there is no toy that is off limits as far as I can tell. Amanda's favorite toys are trains (although she doesn't play with them the way some of her boy friends do. I think Chanson's kids would play well with her version of trains). Her favorite movie is Cars. Her favorite TV show is Bob the Builder. No one in her life (relatives, friends, teachers) tells her that she can't enjoy all of these things. On the other hand, she likes to play with all these things while she is dressed as a princess... In Eleanor's class, everyone's favorite thing to do is woodworking, both girls and boys. The only mathematicians she knows are women, so she expects to do well in math as well...
5 comments
Read more