Sure, as parents we try to hold our ground and make sure that we don't let our kids get away with things. Being a parent of a two year old you are often tested. Aiden seems especially adept at this trying to see just how far he can push me each day or sometimes each minute :)
Last week I had Monday off from work thanks to President's Day. I thought it would be a great day to bring Aiden to the zoo since this is one of his favorite places to go (for those of you who haven't been there the San Diego zoo is amazing) and he runs around so much that it tuckers him out for a good long nap. A win-win situation for mother and child!
As we got up and started our day I let Aiden know we were going to head to the Zoo but since he woke up at 5:30am we had to wait for the animals to get up before we went. He was very excited about this, as he always is, and talked about the zoo, the sky tram, the lions, the monkeys, and the elephants that he wanted to see. Pretty soon it was time to get dressed so we could beat the rush since we were obviously not the only ones in San Diego with President's Day off.
At this point in your reading you are all thinking.. ok get dressed and lets go already! I would then say welcome to life with a two year old. Aiden had other plans as he refused to come into his room and put his clothes on. He was trying to make a game out of it running around the house or into the far corner trying to get me to chase him. Being 8 months pregnant and up since 530 am... I was not feeling the whole game thing. So, I decided to use the good old tried and true tactic of " if you do not come over here by the time I count to 3.... there will be no zoo". Typically, this works on Aiden and he will respond. Well, today it did not. As I was counting slowly in my head I was thinking 1...he better get over here...2.... oh no he is not going to come 2.5 I really want to go to the zoo and we won't be able to go to the zoo 2.75 why did I choose to threaten this when it is only going to hurt me too...3. Crap now what will we do?! "Ok Aiden no zoo, because you did not do go listening and come get dressed when mommy asked".
Aiden did not seem the least bit upset that we were not going to the zoo. He just kept saying, no zoo, no sky tram, but it was not the behavior changing reaction I was looking for.
So... since I was in a rough and tough mommy mood I made him really suffer by taking a walk by the bay downtown where we spent an hour throwing rocks into the water.....
Last week I had Monday off from work thanks to President's Day. I thought it would be a great day to bring Aiden to the zoo since this is one of his favorite places to go (for those of you who haven't been there the San Diego zoo is amazing) and he runs around so much that it tuckers him out for a good long nap. A win-win situation for mother and child!
As we got up and started our day I let Aiden know we were going to head to the Zoo but since he woke up at 5:30am we had to wait for the animals to get up before we went. He was very excited about this, as he always is, and talked about the zoo, the sky tram, the lions, the monkeys, and the elephants that he wanted to see. Pretty soon it was time to get dressed so we could beat the rush since we were obviously not the only ones in San Diego with President's Day off.
At this point in your reading you are all thinking.. ok get dressed and lets go already! I would then say welcome to life with a two year old. Aiden had other plans as he refused to come into his room and put his clothes on. He was trying to make a game out of it running around the house or into the far corner trying to get me to chase him. Being 8 months pregnant and up since 530 am... I was not feeling the whole game thing. So, I decided to use the good old tried and true tactic of " if you do not come over here by the time I count to 3.... there will be no zoo". Typically, this works on Aiden and he will respond. Well, today it did not. As I was counting slowly in my head I was thinking 1...he better get over here...2.... oh no he is not going to come 2.5 I really want to go to the zoo and we won't be able to go to the zoo 2.75 why did I choose to threaten this when it is only going to hurt me too...3. Crap now what will we do?! "Ok Aiden no zoo, because you did not do go listening and come get dressed when mommy asked".
Aiden did not seem the least bit upset that we were not going to the zoo. He just kept saying, no zoo, no sky tram, but it was not the behavior changing reaction I was looking for.
So... since I was in a rough and tough mommy mood I made him really suffer by taking a walk by the bay downtown where we spent an hour throwing rocks into the water.....
Now he will listen when I count to three and know that I mean business!!
The positive was that I got to practice using my camera in manual mode... not bad for a fist time outside .
