Managing toddlers

Oh the ‘Terrible Twos’! A phase most parents dread but it is a normal part of a child’s development. As a parent you shouldn’t worry about this phase, it may not be pleasant at times but you’ll get through it! Here are some behaviours you can start to look out for:

• Mood swings
• Fighting with siblings
• Tantrums
• Objecting
• Screaming

Remember this phase doesn’t necessarily happen when the child is two!

It happens during the child’s social development. What happens is the child (often two years of age) doesn’t know how to control their emotions and this phase helps them understand what they are feeling and understand how to control what they are feeling. The child may be mean, they may bite or fight, they may scream at you, but they are learning.

Speaking of learning and growing we wanted to learn more so we reached out to the behavioural experts Laura & Lisa from stepbystep consulting and asked:

(1) As the evenings get longer how do you manage stubborn small ones who don’t want to go to bed?

“The brighter evenings have lots to do with this!

Give your little one lots of choices around bedtime. Do you want to go to bed in 5 or 10 minutes? Do you want to wear your pink or blue pyjamas? This will give them a sense of control over their bedtime. From here, give them a countdown that bedtime is coming. These little heads up will give them time to prepare themselves. Have something fun (&chill) ready for them in their room. Smallies love 1:1 connection and attention, rather than having a battle, turn it into positive 1:1 time together.”

(2) Do you have any parenting tips you’d like to share with moms and dads when it comes to the ‘terrible two’s? 

“Yes, resisting boundaries and pushing back is part of child development! Your little one is finding their feet.

Prime, prime, prime! Give your child lots of notice before something fun is about to end. Try a transition from something fun to another preferred activity. Rather than it’s time for home, we could say when we get home we are going to play with the sand YAY! Pick your battles.”

Pick your battles!

Love that piece of advice from Lisa and Laura “pick your battles”, don’t exhaust yourself and try to fix everything at once. This is a normal phase, so don’t get too stressed or bogged down.

If you want to learn more about the terrible twos you can check out Step by Step Consulting. They are experts and can help you understand your child’s behaviour! They can also help you if you want to learn more about toilet training, social skills or early signs of autism. If you’re a worried or curious parent you can also check out our other insightful blogs and get expert parenting advice without the hassle.

By SureSitter