Comments on: 10 Strategies To Gain Co-Operation From A Toddler

By: ickle Kids

ickle Kids — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:13:47 +0000

What great ideas on gaining co-operation from toddlers! My toddler is very strong willed so we’ve also had to think of other ways to get around some “tricky” situations. For example:

* getting him off “rides” at the supermarket – we get him off by asking him to say “bye bye and thank you to the car/plane” (whatever ride it is). That works really well.

* Also counting up to 10 works – so he knows when we expect it done and he feels he’s got a bit of extra time. For example, after we brush his teeth, he gets his own turn and after a few minutes, I then say “when Mummy counts up to 10, its ta for Mummy”. Sometimes he will move away from me when I count 7,8 … but we confirm it with “say bye bye to the toothbrush” and he’s happy to let the toothbrush go from his chubby fingers!

At the moment, I’m finding it hard when our toddler wants to have everything our older son is playing with. It usually ends in tears and sometimes a time out to cool off. Kind of hard to explain to a 2 year old how to share. I’ve told my older son that if he is not willing to share his “special toys” (things that are precious to him)with his brother, that he has to play with it in his room with the door closed. I do think that’s a bit unfair for the older one … so do you have any suggestions with what’s worked for you? Would love to hear your thoughts on how you’ve dealt with this, especially as you’ve got 4 kids!

By: Babyamore (Trish)

Babyamore (Trish) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:58:18 +0000

Excellent advice PQ – thanks for the reminder. My eldest is almost 15 … now all I need is a post on gaining his co-operation.*sigh
Babaganouski sounds just like my little tikes – and I have found a lot (all) of what you say works …most of the time. If I can just remember when I am going crazy with two of them overwhelming me with their challenging behaviours.
I really love your site.

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By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:14:19 +0000

I had to relearn some of this when Mr Bump (my #2) reached toddlerdom, too. I kept thinking “How could I have forgotten that?”

For me, distraction has been the best tool. It goes hand-in-hand with choosing your battles. Plus listening and removing temptation.

With Wren (#1) was little, I didn’t need to remove things from her reach, but with 2 littlies on the go I found it was harder to watch them both every second. So there’s lots of stuff in boxes and cupboards at the moment, even though we moved 18mths ago (& he’s 4 now but still full-on).

Maybe I’ll unpack fully when he’s ten…

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