When Harrison was born I had the normal worries of any new parent. Am I doing this right? Is he hungry or tired? Is he gassy or sick? It's so hard to be a first time mummy. You may remember we ended up in the ER one day because Harrison was crying for so long we just thought something was wrong. And of course he stopped as soon as we got there.
But, for a first time parent, I think I did pretty well. I heard many times over "your a natural!" and, other than the lack of sleep, i found it pretty easy. I think it did come pretty natural. Nursing was super easy for me, Harrison slept like a champ, he barely cried, and was easy to calm. Allister was even easier, other than he didn't sleep as well. So long as you give a new born what they want, they're pretty happy chappies! Now of course, parents with colic or whinny fussy babies may disagree with me on that one, but that was my experience with my babies. I was lucky, or a natural, who knows which!
Fast forward to Harrison turning two. That's when things start to get tough! I always said of my easy babies that I'm going to pay later! And boy was I right! I'm not Trying to label my boys, though it's hard to not do that. But I do think Harrison is far more spirited than the average boy. And we love him dearly for it, but it can be hard to know how to tame, or direct his behavior in a positive way. Very recently it's been very hard. Like most things with kids, you have a month or two when they are little angels, everything is going great, you have patience and it's all fun and easy. Then, just as you think you've tuned a corner, BAM, something upsets the apple cart, like a vacation, and everything changes. I've certainly noticed my boys behavior is directly related to a few things. Firstly my patience. Watching too much tv is another, and just being too busy to devote the attention my kids needs. lack of sleep, on everyone's part, is another big one. Many of these things seem like they are easy fixes for the most part. Patience is the hardest.
I've been wondering where to turn for parenting advice. Specific parenting advice. For instance, I'm in the car, on the way to Dayton. Harrison starts to kick the seat. He then starts throwing his water, and hitting Allister. All the time perfecting his eeeeeevil villain laugh! Bwahahahaha! His cheeky grin just makes it worse. So what to do? I'm in the car, on my own driving 75 on the freeway. How do you discipline that? It's so hard! So, I end up pulling over on the hard shoulder, remove Harrison's shoes, waster bottle and tell him how dangerous his behavior is, and give his his binky and bunny and hope he takes a nap! Take 20 or so deep breathes and continue on our way. The joy of the terrible twos and threes!
So, after searching online I found a book called positive parenting. I got it for kindle today, I can read it on my iPad. And iPhone. It has rave reviews, and I'm hoping it will help me, and Matt, be better parents. Calmer parents. And therefore give us happier kids! I'll let you know how the book is.
No comments:
Post a Comment