Lucky strike
How do you teach your kids responsibility? I've read lots of articles on the topic, and other various topics, all basically surrounding the idea of making your child(ren) into good people. When do you start? When is the being a brat thing no longer a phase? I spend way too much time thinking about these things, when I just seem to luck out and stumble upon them.
It took me a while to go out of the house with both kids by myself. It terrified me. I don't have enough arms for this! But at some point family leaves, your spouse goes back to work, and your friends you go out with most also have kids of their own in tow. So you just have to figure it out. Coming home used to be such a chore. Everyone is tired, hungry and a little bit crabby. H doesn't want to come in the house and my hands are full. So now she has a job to do. When we come home from somewhere, she has to go let Piper out of her crate. I just needed anything to get her into the house. But she loves it. The puzzle of opening the locks and the excitement in the dog as she runs out past her.
Now it seems that she has taken to caring more for the dog on her own. In the mornings we come downstairs, let Piper out, get milk and feed the dog. Yesterday morning, T's flight got cancelled so he stayed home for breakfast. I made eggs & bacon, he brewed freshly ground coffee. It was a nice treat, but it took me out of my routine so I hadn't fed Piper yet. As I'm at the stove frying things up, H comes up to me with the empty dog dish. She holds it up and says "food". So I fill it with Pedigree and ask her to take it back. She very carefully walked to the dog food mat, placed it down and stepped to the side so the dog could get at it.
T & I were watching, holding our breath, as if she just won an olympic medal or something. Because every new thing your toddler does is simply the most amazing thing you've ever seen. Then we showered her with hugs and kisses and "great job"s.
Moral of the story: it seems at this age your kids just want to be like you. So I need to stop overthinking everything and just try to be a good example. Because the little parrot-ape is going to do and say everything I do.
It took me a while to go out of the house with both kids by myself. It terrified me. I don't have enough arms for this! But at some point family leaves, your spouse goes back to work, and your friends you go out with most also have kids of their own in tow. So you just have to figure it out. Coming home used to be such a chore. Everyone is tired, hungry and a little bit crabby. H doesn't want to come in the house and my hands are full. So now she has a job to do. When we come home from somewhere, she has to go let Piper out of her crate. I just needed anything to get her into the house. But she loves it. The puzzle of opening the locks and the excitement in the dog as she runs out past her.
Now it seems that she has taken to caring more for the dog on her own. In the mornings we come downstairs, let Piper out, get milk and feed the dog. Yesterday morning, T's flight got cancelled so he stayed home for breakfast. I made eggs & bacon, he brewed freshly ground coffee. It was a nice treat, but it took me out of my routine so I hadn't fed Piper yet. As I'm at the stove frying things up, H comes up to me with the empty dog dish. She holds it up and says "food". So I fill it with Pedigree and ask her to take it back. She very carefully walked to the dog food mat, placed it down and stepped to the side so the dog could get at it.
T & I were watching, holding our breath, as if she just won an olympic medal or something. Because every new thing your toddler does is simply the most amazing thing you've ever seen. Then we showered her with hugs and kisses and "great job"s.
Moral of the story: it seems at this age your kids just want to be like you. So I need to stop overthinking everything and just try to be a good example. Because the little parrot-ape is going to do and say everything I do.
This is adorable! I love that she is being a good sister to Piper! Avery still tries to eat Optimus's food...which is ridiculous because we can't get her to eat grilled cheese...
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