Finding an attention balance

[lyra1977]

My DD is just beginning something that has the potential to be very, very, very frustrating for all of us. When she wants our attention she now says "Mommy mommy mommy (calmly, normal voice) MOOOOOMMMMMYYYYYY (loud and high pitched)" and it has made me ashamed to discover that I really do tend to ignore her a lot! I feel horrible to admit it, but she actually does need to scream at me to get my attention sometimes, when I'm in a conversation with another adult or reading a recipe or whatever. So for the past couple of days I've tried to quickly respond to her while she's still speaking in her quiet, calm voice so that she doesn't need to go into the scream, but it is exhausting because I feel as though she's asking for my attention constantly.

I feel that there must be a balance here somewhere, where she can get my attention without screaming AND I can have a short conversation with DH without having to respond to her attention demands every 30 seconds. Any advice from BTDT moms?

[sapphire_chan]

Acknowledge her immediately, but don't necessarily do whatever it is immediately. Since she's so young, you (and I) will probably have to do something like pick her up as well as saying something like "yes, I'll be with you soon"

And start by almost immediately excusing yourself to the other adult, and gradually add in more time to get to a reasonable stopping point as your dd is able to trust that you will get back to her when you have a chance.

It's my understanding that with older kids you can even teach them to touch your shoulder and get a nod in return. That'd be awesome.