So far, it has been an absolutely challenging and rewarding experience raising Simon. It's strange to look at him everyday and know that what we teach him is shaping everything about him. And, it's not like going to school, where you learn a particular subject matter. It's literally everything. His words, his imitations of us, right from wrong, yes from no, the list goes on.
Teaching him yes and no has so far been the biggest obstacle, in my opinion. His attention span up to this point has been rather short, as is expected of a toddler. So, that means when we tell him "no" that he forgets about it a few short seconds later and goes back for another round. Essentially, we've Simon-proofed the house, so that he isn't drawn to the things we don't want him to touch. I think it's important that he learns "no" from us, but I certainly don't want every interaction with him to be about not touching or going near something. So, why set him up to fail?
This post is particularly about that. Over Christmas, we visited my parents' house, and my mom is a knick-knack person. I hate that, because I hate knick-knacks. But further, they're within little hands' reach, and so the grandkids all want to touch everything. For Christmas, she hosted seven adults and five children (all under the age of 6). Additionally, their living room is set up in a weird way where it could be a large room, but it's instead cramped because the furniture is just hanging out in the middle of the room.
If you're planning on hosting a party, you need to realize the type of guests you're having over, and you should accommodate their needs, if you ask me. Your house should be easy to move through without everyone bumping into each other, and if kids are coming over, you should provide them ample entertainment, so they're not touching all of your precious, stupid knick-knacks.
I got tired of every kid moving these knick-knacks and getting yelled at for it by my mom, so I simply moved the easily accessible ones up out of their reach. Also, the damn stupid, flying Santa that was hanging off the ceiling fan in the living room quickly found its way to somewhere where every adult would stop hitting his/her head on it. But, what does that lead to? An angry mom, upset that I moved things around in her house.
Well, the payment is going to be that I will simply stop visiting, if she doesn't fix the issue. Simon does not need to be set up to fail all of the time. He shouldn't be yelled at constantly for touching knick-knacks, when he's only fifteen months old and is pushing boundaries every chance he gets. Yes, he needs to learn the word "no," but it doesn't need to be the only thing he learns. It's my job to parent Simon, and so far he's turning out to be one of the most well-behaved, fun kids I've known (little biased...). But, let me assure you that he will learn life's lessons. He won't be handed everything, because that's not my style. However, at this age, his nature is to explore, and explore I will let him.
Wow, angry blog post that could have been angrier, but it felt good to at least get this off of my mind.
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