If you’re a parent, you know how it goes with little ones: they throw the pacifier on the floor just to watch you pick it up. You give it back and they throw it again. And again. And again.
To a point, this is a good thing. At this stage, children are learning about cause-and-effect – which is an obvious concept for us as grownups, but quite new to our little ones! But part of learning about cause-and-effect is learning that there are consequences to our actions.
Like maybe if you throw something, then it’s just gone.
For the sake of Mama’s and Daddy’s sanity, we can’t just pick up the same toy 3 trillion times in a row! (Besides, there are other things that have to be done!)
The quick phrase my husband coined when our oldest was small was, “You tossed it; you lost it.” If I recall correctly, this originated in the car, where she’d throw her sippy cup on the floor in the backseat and expect us to miraculously be able to reach it. “Oops,” we’d say, “You tossed it. You lost it.”
Do you have any parenting catchphrases at your house?
How have I not ever noticed y’all saying this before? I think we’re going to start using this one.
I can’t think of any “catchphrases” we have, but I did make up a rhyme to help us with diaper changes. It hasn’t solved all our problems (I think my boys are the worst diaper changees in the world), but it has helped some. When I get ready to put on the clean diaper and they’re fixing to roll over, push away, etc., we do “Bottom up, bottom down, diaper up, fasten around.” They seem to get a kick out of it, so the fighting isn’t so bad and I’ve had a LOT less finagling with velcro and straightening out crooked diapers.
Oooh; we’ll have to try that! (I think Caleb is just as bad about diaper changes as your boys. But it could be worse. At least he’s not taking his diaper off and smearing poop everywhere 6 days out of 7 like Sophia did!)
Oh my gosh, Bekah; you’re brilliant! OF course this doesn’t help with the cleaning-up part, but it is SUCH a huge help with the putting-the-new-diaper-on part. I say it kind of sing-song-y – and he LOVES music, so literally the second time I did it, he was trying to sing along with me. He loves it! And I haven’t had ANY trouble getting his diaper on since we started this.
I love how you girls share mommy tips. 🙂 I’m so proud of the moms and wives you are. Love you lots!
I’m still proud of the moms and wives you are 🙂