my nephew is now 20 months old.
and he is very sticky. he sticks to me like superglue. he always want me to carry him. and jumps with joy when he sees me visiting. quite usual for a kid this age. but there's one thing that i get a little concern about, he cries when he doesn't get what he wants. and everyone gives in to him when he does that. this is something i refused to do. and so when, say, he insists i carry him, i would tell him that he should walk, or that he should just go and play by himself. and he would start pouting. and if i still refused to give in, he would cry.
that was what happened today. and i simply let him be. and as expected, he cried so bad he literally fell onto the floor, and wail... tears flowing freeing. it looked like as though he had been subjected so some big time torture. naturally, his mum ran out of her room to check him out. i simply asked her to let him be. let him cry. don't give in once he cries. this is a learned behaviour and it would do him no good. let's hope he grows out of this. i certainly do not want him to grow up spoilt.
then again, he looks so very cute when he pouts.
Hi Jeffrey,
ReplyDeleteI agree, however painful to watch his emotion now, it becomes worse if he doesn't outgrow that strategy. I assume you gave some signs of reassurance he is still loved after he calmed himself down.
Hope all goes well on your scans.
Best wishes, Edwin
Hi Edwin,
ReplyDeleteYup, affirmation of love and reassurance is very important and I do follow up to explain to him that such behavior is not right. Target the behaviour, not the person.
Then again, while reassurance is important, the challenge all the time is how early or how late we should do it. Doing it too early may be seen as giving in and doing it too late may lose the effect... Haha... Difficult call many a times cos it depends on the situation and how he response.
For me, the best indication is when I open my arms and he runs back for a hug. And a tight hug is what he'll get complete with an explanation of what is right and where he went wrong.
As always, happy to read your comments and sharing! Thanks!
:-)
Jeffrey