Choices

Julia is such an independent little person these days.  She loves to assert herself by saying, you guessed it: no.  

I recently read in a magazine that parents can help toddlers to avoid this word by asking them questions that allow them to retain some sense of control without having the option of saying no, namely, by offering choices.  Instead of asking, for instance, if she wants to put on her shirt, we would ask her if she wants the pink one or the green one.  Instead of asking if she is ready for her bath, we would ask her if she wants to play with her rubber ducks or her puffer fish basketball goal.

I told Aaron about this parenting technique, and he was pretty excited about it.  The next morning, when he went to drop Julia off at my parents' house, Julia was reluctant to let him go, so he was gung ho in offering her a choice. 

"Julia," he said, "Do you want Gramma or this blue hat?" 

It made my mom laugh all morning, and when she texted me about it, it made laugh out loud at work. "Can a hat feed her or read to her?" she quipped in her text. 

Thankfully, Julia didn't choose the hat! She didn't verbally choose either, actually, she just whined more and was rewarded with both Gramma and the blue hat.

Maybe I should have mentioned to Aaron that the choices are supposed to be between real, congruous options.  Whoops.

Oh, and if anyone ever needs a sitter, let me know.  I'll pass along the blue hat's number. He's supposedly pretty good. ;-)