LGP Parenting Thread

[shmenguin]

People always say that the time when their kids are babies goes too fast and it's important to savor it.

I call shenanigans. I want to pause my daughter at 2 and fast forward my 3 month old son.

Babies. Overrated.

[count2infinity]

Facebook/parenting rant... this girl I graduated high school posted this, with the caption "Not only has he dismantled or crushed every single ornament, now the tinsel is shredded. I think I'm just going to take down the tree..."

Spoiler:

I know she has dogs, so I'm thinking it was them. Nope... her kid did that. Is this more of that new age parenting? Just let the kid do what they want? I mean it's not my place to tell her she's likely raising a brat if she just lets him get away with that, but still.

[eddysnake]

why does she have 5 vacuum cleaners? I would make my kid the tree topper and see how fun it would be to get down. That'll teach him.

[PensFanInDC]

Maybe he was disciplined but she didn't post those details on FB. It sounds like part of her solution would be to take down the tree which can be part of the punishment. My son LOVES the Christmas tree this year. If he was constantly playing with it he would get warnings, time outs, etc., and then the tree would go back in the box. No more tree. If you can't treat stuff with respect you don't get to have that stuff. Basic parenting 101.

[eddysnake]

tree would go back in the box.

fake trees make baby Jesus cry.

[count2infinity]

why does she have 5 vacuum cleaners? I would make my kid the tree topper and see how fun it would be to get down. That'll teach him.

she posts pictures all the time... this kid is obsessed with vacuums. he has a million of them. he sleeps with them, he watches tv with them, he goes everywhere with a toy vacuum. Kids are weird.

Maybe he was disciplined but she didn't post those details on FB. It sounds like part of her solution would be to take down the tree which can be part of the punishment. My son LOVES the Christmas tree this year. If he was constantly playing with it he would get warnings, time outs, etc., and then the tree would go back in the box. No more tree. If you can't treat stuff with respect you don't get to have that stuff. Basic parenting 101.

I just don't understand the thought process of "you just destroyed everything, I guess I'll just put it all away." I dunno... maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm thinking of her as one of those parents I had to deal with while teaching where nothing is the kids fault and the kid should not take any responsibility for his actions, and maybe that's unfair of me.

[eddysnake]

why does she have 5 vacuum cleaners? I would make my kid the tree topper and see how fun it would be to get down. That'll teach him.

she posts pictures all the time... this kid is obsessed with vacuums. he has a million of them. he sleeps with them, he watches tv with them, he goes everywhere with a toy vacuum. Kids are weird.

i saw the dirt devil and my brain thought they were all real, didn't put it together that it was a kid and toys...

Only acceptable reason to take down a Christmas tree before Christmas is if it burns down due to Lewis smoking a cigar too close.

[PensFanInDC]

tree would go back in the box.

fake trees make baby Jesus cry.

I fought tooth and nail to keep the fake tree far away from my home but I lost the battle. I will, however, say that it was nice to not have to buy a tree this year and not have to clean up after it last year. I still prefer a real tree like they had on the first Christmas.

I just don't understand the thought process of "you just destroyed everything, I guess I'll just put it all away." I dunno... maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm thinking of her as one of those parents I had to deal with while teaching where nothing is the kids fault and the kid should not take any responsibility for his actions, and maybe that's unfair of me.

Let's say that you run through the 'punishment gambit'. I don't know how old the kid is but for our 3 year old we have never had to go past
Talking about it
Time outs
Taking item away

We tell him not to do something. If he does it again he gets a time out and the item is taken away for a while (usually the rest of the day and mostly because I forget that I took it from him until a day or 2 later).

What kind of responsibility do you expect from a 3 year old? Like I said, I have no idea how old this kid is and I have no idea how to handle discipline past the age of 3.

Discipline is something my wife and I used to talk about a lot but it always came down to "we'll have to wait and see when/if it happens". I can't look into the future to when he is 6 years old and tell how I will react to him throwing a toy. I know at 3 years old that taking the item away makes it stop and he learned that if he mistreats his stuff he doesn't get to have it.

[count2infinity]

What kind of responsibility do you expect from a 3 year old? Like I said, I have no idea how old this kid is and I have no idea how to handle discipline past the age of 3.

By the age of 3, I will certainly not accept my kid destroying all the ornaments on the tree and ripping the tinsel apart... but hey, I don't have kids. What do I know.

[PensFanInDC]

You shouldn't accept it. The question is what are you going to do about it?

[shmenguin]

i think if you get to the point where every ornament was crushed and all the tinsel is shredded, you spend a lot of time posting on facebook and not a lot of time caring about what your kids are doing.

nipping their behavior in the bud is critical. it takes energy to constantly monitor your kids, but if you work hard to not allow them to develop bratty habits, they aren't going to be brats.

[shafnutz05]

There are definitely things our 1 yo (and a couple of months) knows she can't do, because she will look back at you before she does it. A perfect example is sticking her hands in the dog's bowls. She immediately gets a stern, louder "NO", and is picked up and removed from the scene. She will throw a 10-15 second tantrum and then she's fine like nothing happened.

The tantrums are humorous

[shmenguin]

There are definitely things our 1 yo (and a couple of months) knows she can't do, because she will look back at you before she does it. A perfect example is sticking her hands in the dog's bowls. She immediately gets a stern, louder "NO", and is picked up and removed from the scene. She will throw a 10-15 second tantrum and then she's fine like nothing happened.

The tantrums are humorous

it's tough at that age because there's not a lot you can do other than lightly grab their hand and say "no" in some manner.

man, kids are just like dogs

[Kraftster]

My 3.5 old has had more tantrums int he past five weeks (the arrival of her baby sister) than in the rest of her life combined. She's just been a lot more emotional overall. I have found it difficult to figure out what my expectations should be in terms of adjustment to life with a sibling. I have concluded that having another kid is a pretty big change to a kid's world, so I have been endeavoring to be patient with her, but it has been difficult with a high stress level at work lately.

[PensFanInDC]

That's tough Kraft. All the best. We want to start trying for our second early in 2015 so our son will be about 4 (hopefully) when he becomes a brother.

The night/day clock we got for him came today. We are hoping this helps us get some more sleep. We're not waiting until Christmas to give it to him so it will be a Hanukkah present tonight...

[meow]

That's tough. It's tough to blame her for being frustrated. Godspeed, Kraftster.

[PensFanInDC]

Kid goes from being McCloud to being second fiddle (in their mind). Must be tough. Infanta need so much more attention than toddlers. I can see that being tough on her.

[shafnutz05]

My daughter was slamming her sippy cup onto her plate, and I said no a couple of times. My wife told me she was doing this and I didn't believe her, but she looks at me, rolls her eyes at me, and smiles to herself. I know it's a voluntary thing because she only does it whenever we do things she doesn't like. Amazing, I couldn't stop laughing hence ruining the whole lesson, but so worth it.

[shmenguin]

Our 2 year old is coming to terms with the new baby. I empathize with her, but the allowance for misbehavior is still pretty small. These are still important times in establishing ground rules and routines. Despite her being bent out of shape about my son holding her mother hostage.

[MWB]

Maybe he was disciplined but she didn't post those details on FB. It sounds like part of her solution would be to take down the tree which can be part of the punishment. My son LOVES the Christmas tree this year. If he was constantly playing with it he would get warnings, time outs, etc., and then the tree would go back in the box. No more tree. If you can't treat stuff with respect you don't get to have that stuff. Basic parenting 101.

Is the tree just for the kid, or for everyone? Taking the tree down kinda punishes everyone.

[PensFanInDC]

Maybe he was disciplined but she didn't post those details on FB. It sounds like part of her solution would be to take down the tree which can be part of the punishment. My son LOVES the Christmas tree this year. If he was constantly playing with it he would get warnings, time outs, etc., and then the tree would go back in the box. No more tree. If you can't treat stuff with respect you don't get to have that stuff. Basic parenting 101.

Is the tree just for the kid, or for everyone? Taking the tree down kinda punishes everyone.

This year its for him. Trying to sell a house and the last thing I want to do is take stuff OUT of boxes.

[DropEmJayBird]

The hell with taking the tree away - I'd take away the precious vacuum cleaners.

[count2infinity]

The hell with taking the tree away - I'd take away the precious vacuum cleaners.

[meow]

Anyone else have music/songs stuck in their heads from kid's christmas gifts?

[shafnutz05]

Anyone else have music/songs stuck in their heads from kid's christmas gifts?

"Listen to the music and get on your feet, move like the animals stomp your feet, waddle like a penguin stand up tall (LIKE A GIRAFFE!), dance like a monkey and laugh laugh laugh....come PLAY at the ZOO!"

In other words...yes. Kudos to anyone else who can identify the toy that spawned this song and other catchy ones:

Spoiler: