Tips for Dealing with Toddlers (and Small Children)

[catastrophy]

Tip #5

As far as the average 2 year old is concerned, you can do magic and have superpowers.

Consider the amount of influence you have over a toddler's world. You can dictate bedtime, what they eat for lunch, and are the gatekeeper of all doors. Consider how wise you seem to a toddler. You know how to make Sesame Street appear on the TV, which road goes to the park, how to read books, what all the pink countries on the globe are called, and why it rains.

When you use your powers, keep two things in mind: that little boy (or girl) trusts you implicitly, and, the infamous "with great power comes great responsibility". So, explain as much as you can whenever possible. You would be surprised how much a 2 year old can understand, if you take the time to teach her.

Remember, your role model should be Gandalf, not Q.

Comments

[idothattopeople.livejournal.com]

I really enjoy reading these tips! They make me realize that I never think about the world from a toddler's perspective, and I think it's really awesome that you can!

[(Anonymous)]

The power is not explicit for toddlers; empathy can be a difficult exercise in induction. Can be an excellent game, if played in moderate amounts.

[dakeeni.livejournal.com]

Greetings, mysterious commenter! (I wonder who you might be?)

I agree that it is often fruitful to challenge toddlers to consider how other people are feeling. If you've over been whacked by a flying toy or gotten a hand stomped on as a toddler goes about her business in the playroom, and she doesn't take take note it could be for several reasons, including a lack of empathy or a failure to grasp cause-and-effect.

But I do think that toddlers can sometimes grasp the power explicitly.

[(Anonymous)]

For simplicity, I will simply state that communication and understanding are incredibly important for the transition of self-centered universe to a broad arena that extends far outside of said self. Everything is relative; as a generalization, generalizations are not always true (irony).

tl;dr = once a kid can learn by watching and understanding others, your teaching methods must reflect their change?

at least, that's what i guess. i dunno. maybe i'm completely wrong. i mean, i'd like to go back in time and do things differently between me and my little brother. maybe accelerate his ability to adapt to social situations. but nah. 's not how it turned out. so, yeah. retrospect and all that above. could all be wrong; i'm just giving the algorithms based on my data. best assessment from data available, and all that. >_