Thursday, July 2, 2009

TIPS WANTED

So as you all know, Matt and I are new parents, and with that we are learning as we go. We have discovered a lot of tips, I guess you could say, that has made our parenting a little easier. Such as, rocking or bouncing Berk to sleep on an exercise ball and teaching her to hold her bottle at a young age. I understand that every baby and child is different, but I thought it would be nice to hear everyone else's ideas and things that have worked for them. If you get a chance, share a few with us and hopefully we will be able to try a few and see if they work with Berkley. Here is a list of things things that I figured people would have tips on (not all of these apply to us at the moment, but we will keep them in mind): Weening from bottle and binkie, potty training, tantrums, being nice to siblings, and whatever else you might think we need to know or try when the time comes. Thanks so much for whatever your input is!

1 comment:

  1. Oh man, are you sure you wanna unleash all the tips I could have for you? Is this long enough? Ok, so it really does depend on each child but here's a few:
    Binkie: Let them have it for sure when sleeping and then when teething as it feels good to chew on and soothe. After that try just using it at sleep times and when you've had enough of it cut the tips off of them and they won't like the way they feel and won't want them anymore. We took Lylee's away at 1 1/2 years because she was getting a drool rash from it at nap times and she didn't even care.

    Potty training: I'll give you my thoughts on this when you come to this. I have a method that I like a lot and obviously worked really well for us. It's not the only way of course and I've only done it once but two of my friends did the same thing and success!

    Tantrums! Ugh!! My advice is to breathe and wait before you react. Sometimes I get so mad and want to just swat my kid's bum and put her to bed but I have to address the behavior first. Talk to her firm and down on her level. I make Lylee look me in the eyes and understand what she's doing isn't ok. I make her repet the important part like "No screaming/hitting..." Then I make her sit in time out (on her bed) for screaming and throwing a fit because "we don't act like that." Even though they may not understand EVERYTHING you're saying, you still explain that it's not ok to take toys from another kid because they were playing with it first...And BE CONSISTENT!!! It's harder when you're not at home to discipline but set those high standards and let them know they apply EVERYWHERE. Kids try to get away with all kinds of stuff!!

    Good Luck! You guys are already excellent parents and will figure it all out yourselves! But if you have any questions just ask! You probably didn't even want to hear all of this! :)

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