One of the drawbacks to being a SAHM while your partner works out of the house a lot is that your child can develop a VERY strong attachment to you. This is definitely true with Xander. It can be very sweet at times, but also rather frustrating. If he doesn’t accompany me to the bathroom, he stands outside the door and bangs on the wall. He whines if I wander into another room while he plays.
And, for a while, he was being incredibly rude to JS. If Xander and I were playing, or snuggling after a nap, and JS came into the room? Xander would scream and cry, shouting “Go away!” It was ridiculous. We tried explaining how that hurts Daddy’s feelings, that it wasn’t nice to use mean words, that it was against the rules. I even tried time outs.
NOTHING WORKED.
Then, like the Mensa candidate that I am (spoiler: NOT REALLY), I thought, hey, what if I tried to teach him something else to say, instead? So we practiced waving and saying “Hi, Daddy.”
Guess what? It worked. Quickly, too. He may start to get agitated when he thinks JS is “taking over” Mama time, but he quickly smiles, waves, and says “hi” instead.
I don’t know HOW many times I have had to learn this the hard way. That instead of saying “no” constantly, and then disciplining him for not listening, most of the time all it takes is teaching him a new thing to try and then praising him for it. Why is this such a hard lesson to learn?
Unrelated, Xander has started the fun phase of wanting to pick out some of his own clothes. I absolutely love it. I always have. I love it when little kids run around looking ludicrous because they insist on wearing fuzzy slippers with a cowboy hat.
