Can the Non-Stop Whining Be Stopped?

Oh boy do I hope so! My wife and I are going crazy some nights. Our 3 1/2 year old son ONLY wants Mommy to put him to bed. (no Dad’s don’t think that is awesome…I then hear it from my wife, don’t I honey!?) Anyway, my wife and I have been making progress at bedtime with Boo the past few weeks and then, just as the tides ebb and flow, this week our son was back to whining about everything.

Why does this happen? I have no clue. I can’t even speculate, sorry! But the advice I have to offer is, dude, you aren’t the only other Dad reading this that this same thing is happening too! I Googled “3yr old whines too much” and found that I wasn’t alone either! Whew. My wife and I can regain our sanity and now work to find a solution.

Some suggestions I located online:

“I always told my kids that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I persisted until they talked normal.”

“Perhaps you haven’t listened to them unless they were whining, so that’s why they have gotten into the habit…I have done the same thing, its easy to be too busy to listen to their every word.”

“Show them that they need to get your attention first, eye to eye contact, then talk normally to get what they need. If they yell from across the room, tell them they need to be closer and that you can’t hear them.”

“If you give them what they want when they speak normally, then that will reinforce the normal behavior”

All of the above advice require a ton of patience. We’ve been trying to get Boo to look at us when we talk to him and I also was just thinking about having him come closer when he talks to us. I think we’ll give those to a good attempt as that will definitely reduce my stress levels.

Technorati Tags: preschooler, whining

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The Adventure Down Under - When Your Preschooler Finds His Private Parts

Nope it ain’t Australia! So right now, this week, our son who’s 3 1/2 is telling my wife at bedtime that his penis feels funny (is tingly, hurts, feels different, etc. - Boo sure had a lot of sayings about this already). Yikes! So what does that mean? Just a year ago I was teaching him about the (real) birds and the bees and now he’s noticing his manhood and asking about why it gets the way it does. Oh boy. What does a Dad say to a 3 1/2 year old?

I’ve noticed myself saying, “It’s ok, that is natural”, or “the scientific answer is…blood flow”, or I just say, “So what about school, what did you do there today?” and bypass the question. How many other Dads (or moms) are currently going through this phase in your son’s or daughter’s life right now? I think I’m going to ask the other Dads in Boo’s daycare class about this and see if this is happening to them yet, and if so, what the Hell they are doing about it!

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Fresh Air, Outdoor Play…Danger in the Driveway

Here’s another great article from HuggiesHappyBaby.com that I read and wanted to share with other Dads and Moms out there. It’s about safety this spring in our OWN driveways.

“In 2003, at least 72 children died in the United States as a result of being accidentally backed over by a vehicle,” said Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids and Cars, an advocacy group which promotes vehicle safety for children. “Even more heartbreaking is the fact that the majority of those tragedies occurred with a parent or a close relative behind the wheel,” she says.

I don’t know one single family that doesn’t have at least one SUV or minivan and seem to the the most dangerous vehicles when backing up. You cannot see a 30″ toddler behind you when backing out of the garage. I won’t even get in our SUV when our two kids are outside. Even if they are in the backyard playing you never know when they’ll run around to play “peek a boo” with me. So be cautious this Spring as the kids start to spend more time outdoors!

Here are some safety precautions you should take:

• Don’t let children play in the driveway!
• If they are in the driveway or in an adjacent yard, the rule is that all the children must stand on the front steps—or someplace visible and away from the driveway—before she moves the vehicle. If you can see everyone on the steps, you knows it’s safe to pull into or out of the driveway.
• Make sure that the people supervising children, particularly toddlers, know exactly when drivers are leaving so the children don’t venture out to the driveway.
• Install rear sensors or video cameras that mount on vehicle bumpers and provide images that span all the way to the ground.

Read the full article here at Danger in the Driveway

No Struggle and No Tears at Bedtime

Need help putting Junior to bed at night? Does your toddler cry out 3 minutes after putting him/her down to bed?  Do you have to sit on a hard stool and wait until your child is asleep, or at least you think he’s asleep? (we do, and we want to stop and have him fall asleep by himself).

Here are 10 quick things to do that might help you out! (you can read the full article from HuggiesHappyBaby.com here)

1. Start the wind-down process early in the evening.

2. Follow the same evening routine every night, if possible. Dinner, bath, stories, then kissing and tucking in all the stuffed animals who share the toddler’s bed….
3. Help your toddler set his “biological clock.”

4. Set up a cozy bed.

5. Many toddlers need a bedtime snack to hold them through the night, especially during growth spurts.

6. Don’t give up naps too early.

7. Make sure they get enough fresh air and exercise during the day.

8. Most toddlers fall asleep easily if you lie down with them, and many parents do this. Other parents resist the temptation, because they too often fall asleep themselves, and lose their evenings.

9. All humans wake slightly at night during normal sleep cycles.
10. Start slow. Begin (after your bedtime routine) by holding your child until he falls asleep — not lying down, which puts you in danger of falling asleep.

About the author: Dr Laura Markham is a clinical psychologist and the founding editor of the parenting web site www.YourParentingSolutions.com, featuring a popular advice column and parent-tested solutions you can use every day to connect with your kids and create a richer family life.

Full article here > Sleep Without Tears

DIY Sippy Cups - Recycle Yogurt Containers » TipNut.com

Hey Dads, need something to do this weekend?  Wife won’t let you work in the basement (my life story).  Well raid the fridge and give your kids some yogurt and eat one yourself. Up your calcium!  When you’re done eating rinse out the yogurt container and wash them or stick in the dishwasher.  Oh by the way, the yogurt container should be full yogurts, not the Dora or Deigo or Blues Clues ones, but like adult yogurt containers from Dannon, etc.

You and you kids can then create their own sippy cup. Of course this reminds me of living in the late ’70s when I would go to my friend’s house and they used yogurt containers for us!

I found this info on TipNut.com, here is the link to the article.

DIY Sippy Cups - Recycle Yogurt Containers » TipNut.com

Help For Teaching Kids Self-Control

Tonight our son was perfect after coming home from daycare, maybe it was the fact that Mommy stopped off and picked up Chick-Fil -A on the way home with our kids. Whatever it was he was an angel until he had fallen asleep. About 20 minutes after him being asleep he came walking downstairs and said really nice, “Mommy I didn’t get to play a game”. When Mommy replied, “Oh sweetie, it’s bedtime and the games are ‘closed for the the night’,” our son went from angel to demon in a second. Why is that? What makes a child do a complete 180 and go from nice to angered so quickly? It’s like a lightswitch!

I had a hellish day at work and my wife didn’t have a much better one but still we were very pleasant this evening, a first in a while, it was a blessing! We thought the night was going so perfectly, even giving us time to do other things, me catch up on Lost Season3 (since I’m behind one season) and she needed to take care of some work.

So shortly after 9pm is when our son began his first outburst and meltdown about playing a game. A computer game…not really, but like a Diego or Dora interactive learning game (i’ll justify it as that!). So anyway, I went in and Mommy stood along the wall. We kept telling him that the game was “closed”. That works all the time at his school/daycare. But of course, why would that simple term work for us at night!? Finally after about 45 minutes of ’sidetracking’ him — where Daddy does things to make him laugh, focus on something else, did he finally calm down enough to fall asleep. One ‘game’ I played with him was Choose a Number, where I asked him to pick a number between 1 and 5. It seemed to work. At least for a while. Anyway, cutting this short, he did fall asleep.

An hour later was the second attack on Mommy and Daddy by our son. My wife was asleep and I was just beginning to relax and watch Lost. I assumed that his waking up was related to some sort of illness, like an ear infection. He was tugging his ear and putting his finger in it this evening. Usually that is what he does when his ear hurts.

Anyway, this is a huge lead-in to another blog post I located tonight in a search for my sanity and answers to “WHY KIDS WAKE UP SCREAMING!”

Here is a good post on another blog site. it is about teaching kids self-control.

Help For Teaching Kids Self-Control
As parents we often react to your child’s misbehavior or emotional outburst by an emotional overreaction ourselves. This can make you feel out of control also. Tensions escalate and soon the whole situation becomes a much bigger issue then it really should have.