Child Rearing

I've almost completed my first year in parenting. Quite a few more to go, and if all goes as we wish we will be repeating the process many times. It has been a fun, exhausting, learning experience when it comes to raising another little person. I know I only want what's best for my kid, doesn't everybody?

Stephen and I were given a book and we think it has been very beneficial to us and Sam. It covers many topics on raising a child from the get-go. One of the best principles that we have learned from this book is discipline training before you have to discipline. How genius is that! So we have been lovingly disciplining Sam since he was about 5 months old, which was about the time he would throw those "oh so cute" baby fits that are not "oh so cute" when a 2 year old throws them.

I know Stephen liked the book because he finished it before I did! I think it was the first time either of us had completed a parenting book. We talked about how we wanted to do things with Sam and then we implemented the action that needed to be taken. 

For example, the very first thing we wanted to take care of was whining. I didn't even know a 5 month old could whine! After reading the book, we realized that he whined...ALL THE TIME! It was grating on our nerves and we didn't even know it. There was lots of frustration built up between Stephen and I. We would've never guessed it was our sweet, adorable little baby driving us crazy! Lol! Once we pinpointed that we knew we had to take care of it. Not long after we started the discipline training and he is soooooo much better! He still gets whiny occasionally, but the difference is amazing!

We also work on "don't touch". We started this around 6 months when he started getting into stuff. Many people have made comments that we need to baby proof our house. I don't have a problem with locking the chemical cabinet or whatever you want to call it. However, I do not want to have a child centered home, therefore, we have been house proofing our baby. Ha ha!

I always laughed at the "baby update emails" I would get this past year saying that my baby wouldn't understand "no" until much older. Well, take that baby psychologists! 

Sam has known what "no" and "don't touch" means since 6 months. It only took him a day or so to figure that one out. Now I can be across the room from him and say "don't touch" and he will stop immediately 99% of the time. If he doesn't stop, he gets gentle but firm "don't touch" and a little switch on the hand for disobeying and you bet he stops after that.

Next, we're going to work on "come here". I know it sounds like a dog, but would it not drive you crazy if you told your kids to "come here", they looked at you, and turned back to what they were doing. Well, Sam's doing it, and it sure is driving me crazy! If I want my kid to come to me, he better come to me that instant. So, that's what we will be working on this week. 

Not trying to sound harsh. I actually love training my child and seeing the positive results from it. It makes our household run so much better and everyone, including Sam, is a lot happier when he is obeying.

The book is called "To Train Up A Child" by Michael and Debi Pearl. You can get it for about $2.50+ shipping on amazon.com. It's not a huge book and its actually quite entertaining. Don't judge by the cover though, I laughed at it when I saw it too.