Parenting: Things You May Not Know About a Toddler

Parenting: Things You May Not Know About a Toddler - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. The first thing parents need to know about raising a toddler is that toddlers are emotional, and they are not rational, for the most part. Their emotions fly all over the place, they feel wonderful one minute and theyare dashed to the ground the next and that is normal. So, if you just accept the fact that this is the realm you are living in right now, it is a lot easier for you to handle than getting upset every time a toddler gets upset. That is just not the thing you want to do, you do not want to ride the emotional roller coaster with your toddler. Toddlers have to be watched, that is the other thing. They have to be in a safe environment so be sure that your home is very safe for toddlers. Make sure that your outlets are all covered, breakable things are out of range, that the lower cupboards are all available to toddlers so that when they want to go in and take everything out of the cupboards because they are exploring, that it is all safe to do. Just pots and pans on the lower, in the lower cupboards and nothing dangerous. No cleaning solutions, that kind of thing. Toddlers need a lot of affection despite the fact that they are often just little emotional tornados and so do not forget that when they are in a state of being upset, they need your affection. They do not need your judgment, they do not need blame, they do not need punishment, they need understanding and they need a way to help their bodies calm. A way to help their bodies calm is physical contact from you. So picking them up and rubbing their backs, singing to them, humming in their ears, whispering in their ears helps toddlers calm down very quickly too. They are so busy exploring the world that they have all kinds of agendas and so that is going to put them in conflict with you because you are trying to keep them safe and you are trying to keep family life rolling so just note that they have their own agenda and it needs to be respected, but they also have to have limits. Toddlers are scientists. They are checking to see what stays true over several trials. And so if you respond one way on a given day to their tantrums, and another way on a given day, and then on the next day you go back to the way that you responded, you are going to see more tantrums because they are running an experiment on how tantrums go and how adults respond to those tantrums. So try to keep your response the same every time. How do you respond to tantrums? You do not. You do not try to talk the child out of the tantrum other than just saying "do you want to keep crying or would you like to calm down now?". That is all you do. Regard tantrums as normal. Even when they happen in public, and I know this is really hard on parents, but regard tantrums as normal behavior at this age. These children are not in control of their emotions. Toddlers love to laugh, so the fifth thing is to be sure that you joke with your toddler. And they love this, they see this as an affection moment with them and this is what they really need to grow and be healthy and emotionally put together kids. Laugh with your toddlers.