DD is almost 3.5 and definitely has her moments being a threenager. We're grateful that she's always been a relatively happy child, but she's also extremely playful. Simple daily activities like dressing up or going to the bathroom is a game. It's exhausting!
How do you get a playful child to take things seriously without 1) raising your voice 2) bribes or 3) threats. Is it even possible?
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
What about making everything into a game? Like sing a sillyrics song when putting on clothes. Or order the steps when using the bathroom with payoff/ prizes such as flushing the toilet. Maybe using action words like freeze or speed up to shake up the routine.
pomelo / 5000 posts
I don't understand the need to make her take things seriously. What am I missing? Taking care of toddlers is exhausting no matter what!
persimmon / 1458 posts
Gosh, I could have written this! Following for ideas. My husband and I really struggle with this. My son just turned 4 and I want to embrace his easy going, funny, silly personality but at times it does interfere. Daycare has talked to us about it and they are trying to get him to understand the consequences of his actions but it's hard. Our latest tactic is trying to tell him the difference between serious time and silly time. For example parking lot safety is a serious time, hiding and running in between cars is dangerous. Sometimes he gets it and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he asks us if it's serious or silly time but not consistently. It's exhausting! I'm sympathize.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
Is it that things just take way too long? Would your daughter accept a timer?
pineapple / 12802 posts
@Happygal: I don't know if this is what OP means, but sometimes in the evenings L is so silly that it's hard to get him to focus on stuff like getting his jammies on. He'll run around and he's super happy and playful, but ... he needs to go to bed. Maybe?!
ETA: and, he's happy, so obviously I don't want to give him trouble for it, but I do want him to get his jammies on!
apricot / 343 posts
One thing I have been trying recently (after reading some RIE stuff and talking to our son's daycare teachers) is embracing the silliness initially to help him satisfy that need. For example, he often wants to roll around and play while putting on his jammies. My first response is to be a bit frustrated and talk to him about the need to get his jammies on, etc. But if I take a minute to wrestle and tickle him, he's often ready to then move on with the jammies (or whatever serious thing needs to be done.)
The daycare director referred to it as "being charming", which I found a charming way to think about it 
persimmon / 1363 posts
Playfulness is basically my only parenting technique, lol. I find with my little joker, if a tactic isn't serving its purpose anymore I switch it up. So with the getting dressed thing, I used to pretend to be the clothes monster and chase her around and scoop her up and stuff her into clothes. Now it takes to long and I have another kid, so I invented a new game where we race against the timer to get dressed. Much faster. I also find that when I want to shake her out of uncontrolled silliness, I bend down and touch her face and have her look at me before I say the next thing.
bananas / 9227 posts
@Rockies11: awesome ideas! Thank you! @.twist.: this is exactly what I mean.
@looch: I'm going to try a game with a timer, thank you!
bananas / 9227 posts
@Canoli: we've had similar problems at the parking lot. The last time it happened, we've fully explained to her that she can't come shopping with us if she runs around in the parking lot. DH and I both agreed to make it a point if it happens again.
bananas / 9227 posts
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I sing silly lyrics all the time, but she out surpasses my energy level. She can wear down a whole house of grown ups and still sing and jump around for hours afterwards 
bananas / 9227 posts
@Happygal: It's a little hard to explain, so I'll give a example: we wake up and get ready for the day and instead of putting clothes on, she'll put her tights on her head and run around giggling. It's sweet and all, but if we have to be at school at a certain time, and the similar antics are replayed over and over, it's frustrating and exhausting. I don't want to raise my voice at her and she's too young to understand the concept of time. So I end up bribing her. But there's got to be other ways of handling this 
| Today | Monthly Record | |
|---|---|---|
| Topics | 1 | 0 |
| Posts | 0 | 1 |
Ask for Help
Make a Suggestion
Frequently Asked Questions
Bee Levels
Acronyms
Most Viewed Posts
Hellobee Gold
Hellobee Recipes
Hellobee Features
Hellobee Contests
Baby-led Weaning
Bento Boxes
Breastfeeding
Newborn Essentials
Parties
Postpartum Care Essentials
Sensory Play Activities
Sleep Training
Starting Solids Gear
Transitioning to Toddler Bed
All Series
Who We Are
About the Bloggers
About the Hostesses
Contributing Bloggers
Apply to Blog
Apply to Hostess
Submit a Guest Blog
Hellobee Buttons
How We Make Money
Community Policies
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
12 comments