Seems like a lot of us have shared our lower parenting moments in this forum. I thought it would be fun and educational for us to share some of our best GD moments!
I don't really have any, since my DS isn't even 2. But if I had to share one thing I'm proud of, it would be that I figured out early on that "transitions" were key with my toddler. When I needed him to come inside and he was outside sitting on the riding mower (one of his favorite activities when he was a very young toddler), then I would say "OK... can you put the key back in the mower, please? We need to say goodbye to the mower. We're going to go inside now. Bye, mower! See ya later, mower! Take care, mower!" He would (usually) repeat the stuff after me and wave at the mower, and we would happily go inside.
I still use this sort of technique a lot, and now that he's a bit older I warn him ahead of time when we'll need to change activities soon (it's getting dark, so we're going to be leaving the park in a few minutes).
So! Please share one of your better moments as a GD parent or something you do that is effective/that you're proud of.
And, could we PLEASE not nitpick each other on the GDedness of our actions in thread.
Please? It would be nice if we could have a supportive thread where we could concentrate on our positives as parents. I sure have enough moments of feeling like a horrible mom on my own, KWIM?
I don't really have any, since my DS isn't even 2. But if I had to share one thing I'm proud of, it would be that I figured out early on that "transitions" were key with my toddler. When I needed him to come inside and he was outside sitting on the riding mower (one of his favorite activities when he was a very young toddler), then I would say "OK... can you put the key back in the mower, please? We need to say goodbye to the mower. We're going to go inside now. Bye, mower! See ya later, mower! Take care, mower!" He would (usually) repeat the stuff after me and wave at the mower, and we would happily go inside.
I still use this sort of technique a lot, and now that he's a bit older I warn him ahead of time when we'll need to change activities soon (it's getting dark, so we're going to be leaving the park in a few minutes).
So! Please share one of your better moments as a GD parent or something you do that is effective/that you're proud of.
And, could we PLEASE not nitpick each other on the GDedness of our actions in thread.
Please? It would be nice if we could have a supportive thread where we could concentrate on our positives as parents. I sure have enough moments of feeling like a horrible mom on my own, KWIM?
) If he won't "come here" and talk to me, I go to him and ask if he'd like to go cuddle and talk about it or if I can give him a hug or whatever. I will also just ask him to calm down so I can talk to him and he can hear me. This usually works pretty well. Ds has not had what I consider a tantrum (on the floor kicking and screaming). He usually just stands still and loudly cries.
"
" - start to run in a goofy tickly way - get a cuddle and giggle/squeel.
And she is so *very* proud of herself....she's just grinning ear to ear.....and I realize how unimportant it is to make it to that appointment on time. 
We celebrate together. And I realize that those 7 minutes were spent *exactly* as they were supposed to be spent and I wish instead of fuming, I'd have appreciated her struggle to accomplish something. But at least she didn't know how frustrated I was, and I celebrated her victory with her!
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