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My child started running as soon as he could around 18 months when we were in public- parks, grocery stores, any store, pickup from daycare, etc. I tried ALL the things to get him to stop but none worked. When he was 3 I saw someone post in a local moms group a similar post to yours asking for advice from parents of “Reformed runners”. 8 replies and every single one said the same thing- its due to sensory processing and is flight response and to have child evaluated for Occupational therapy and it helps immensely. Light bulb went off in my head! I had my son evaluated at 3 for OT services- he qualified and has been in OT for 9 months and it has been a godsend! He rarely runs from me in public. We have learned tools for how he can calm himself down and types of sensory inputs he needs. Good luck! It will get better!
When doing the yarn tangle maze, my 3.5 year old was more concerned with untying the initial knot, so I tied a few short strands in loose double knots on the back of our dining chairs for her to untie – she loved that!
My son is a perfectionist (5 years old) and often gets mad if he can’t draw something well (a boat) or he is cutting something intricate and the paper rips…and lots of other things!
I love this phrase Erin suggested – “show me the hard part.” I am often sheepish to validate the angry, frustrated feelings, because for my son at least, it often makes him get more angry or melt down and it’s hard to shift gears from there. He seems to want me to fix the problem and I can’t always do that. But I think I need more courage as there seems to be a lot of benefit to allowing those feelings — I guess I need to work on *accepting* those feelings more than anything and leaning into those hard moments!
But a side note, a few things we are doing are: talking about some affirmations from Big Life Journal about progress over perfection, calling his art papers “practice sheets” (when he gets upset I remind him “oh that’s a practice sheet, remember?” and he says “oh” and smiles and usually moves on!), and the last thing is talking about the reason behind what he is doing. He got very upset that the letter he was coloring for his sister’s mailbox from one of the other goose lessons got “messed up.” I did try to validate his feelings as much as I could, and then asked him, “are you making this to be perfect, or to show love to your sister? Will she see the mistake or feel the love from your note?” And surprisingly that seemed to help…he was super cheerful after and finished the letter without any problems.
…idk, hopefully those things aren’t way off course!!
Hello from Cleveland Ohio! I have a 5 year old son, a 3.5 year old daughter, and 10 month old baby girl. Homeschooling was something that’s been on my heart for 2-3 years, but I just didn’t know the how… then being thrown into it with COVID-19. I am so grateful for this resource. I feel so much more connected with my kids, at peace in our home and in our homeschool, and excited to start each day! I’m learning so much about parenting along the way. I am being blessed and so are my kids. If you are local, reach out! I would love to connect :)
We were licensed foster parents in the last place we lived, but only did respite care. I will say that the process to get certified really helped us. We lived in NM and they were very upfront about the challenges and happy to share the good. They also provided lots of support and continuing education. It might be worth looking into foster information nights in your area and attending one to get a better feel for what the process could look like.
Our son is adopted, and while it’s hard that he’s our son because his other mom wasn’t able to parent, we’re grateful for a chance to love them both.
This sounds amazing – looking this recipe up! I love making stuff in bulk and freezing or having on hand. Bran muffin mix in the fridge that keeps for 2 weeks, a triple batch of energy balls in the freezer (Oh She Glows has some tasty ones, as well as yummy “yolos” made of dates+PB dipped in dark chocolate!)…
Thank you Kundhavi! When we first started potty training we didn’t really use screens, but eventually caved so we could keep her on long enough to make some progress. She has been really into a Frozen storybook my mom gifted her recently, so I will try substituting that for the iPad today. I so appreciate the reply!
@Emma – would a book during potty help? We did that with our toddler… it started with me sitting in there reading the book with her and slowly moving to letting her read the book herself. If she wants me to read- “sure, finish your potty and then we read on the couch”.
We have become reliant on the iPad as part of potty training our 3.5 year old. It’s definitely a problem that I’m not sure how to solve. Potty training has been a long process with our daughter and I think she’s about 75% trained. But now I need to get her sitting for less time and without the incentive of a game to play. Any tips or suggestions from your own experiences would be so appreciated!
Hi everyone! I’m from Dahlonega, Georgia. Most of you probably have no idea where that is but we are quarantined with my husband and I both teleworking and a 4 year old that we are trying to keep entertained because our poor dog can’t take being his “best friend” any more. :)
My four year old knows better but I get whines or sass now again. Usually a calm “Try again” from me serves as a conflict-free redirection. As for the big meltdowns, I do what you all do. Help her identify the emotions, match her anger/frustration/sadness, and go from there.
We are doing a drive-by parade for our son tomorrow! Someone mentioned this above, too:) They will drive by slowly anytime within a 30 min period we gave them while waving, singing/playing birthday music, and holding signs. For long distance friends and family or those who just can’t make the parade, we set up a Zoom call (group video chat) to sing him happy birthday and watch him blow out his candles on his awesome Toothless the dragon cake:) I was so distraught his 5th had to be during this time, but now I’m really excited to watch him get all this extra special attention!
I do what Adrienne has stated. My husband and I try to get on our littles level. We ask her to breathe. Even though, she’s not two yet, she understands when she gets extremely overwhelmed. Sometimes, I even lay her head on my chest and I calmly say we are going to take 5 big breaths together. We try so hard to be patient because we know that she cannot vocalize how she is really feeling, so we do that mental checklist in our brain!
I noticed the screen time tantrums only when my kid was using the iPad long enough to skip a meal or to put off nap time or bedtime with it.. which were normal times for a tantrum anyway.
Because of this, and how she wanted to play on the iPad when she didn’t get her way with something… I understood she is trying to cope by using a device. It’s been nice being self-isolated and having this time to discover this. Now when she’s asking for the iPad I automatically know it’s time to see if she needs food, sleep, or cuddles/interaction with me. It’s made things easier in a way! But she is allowed a few minutes to play a virtual doll house/hospital/school game on the iPad in the morning sometimes and she also has a little time at the end of the day. I am comfortable with this much use.
