• kossa ( kossa@feddit.org ) 
      11·
      11 months ago

      Well, to an extent. But with toddlers you have a whole other dimension to leverage (for the good and the bad): modeling behavior. Kids are crazy copycats, it’s often ‘easy’ to convince children to do something if you do it yourself, but then, the opposite is also true 😬. Behavior you don’t want to be copied will still be copied.

      Source: parent of two toddlers.

        • No1 ( No1@aussie.zone ) 
          2·
          11 months ago

          We have 2 gods and a 7 y/o child.

          Well, you see, gods are in charge of you, not the other way around. Source:Ancient Greece

          • nilloc ( nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de ) English
            1·
            11 months ago

            One is a corgi and the other a Swedish Valhund. They are controlling our every move at this point.

            Really though the 11 y/o corgi is in charge and the 1.5y/o Valhund is a maniac that just wants to play and run in circles with the 7 y/o kid. Utter chaos.

  • endlessvoid ( endlessvoid@lemmy.today ) English
    17·
    11 months ago

    As a parent to a 5 and a 2 yo, once kids can communicate they can often be reasoned with. Most things that I ask them as a parent are things they dont want to do, like brush their teeth or don’t throw their toys or share with their sister. As a parent it’s my job to make them understand WHY those things are important and worth doing.

    Brush your teeth so they dont decay and need to be cut out.

    Dont throw toys because they will break and get thrown away or be taken away for everyones safety.

    Share with your sister because if you cant cooperate with people they wont cooperate with you when you want them to.

    Breaking down the reasons to language a kid can understand is generally successful and certainly much better than trying to force your kids to comply with expectations based on nothing more than “because I said so”, which was a common refrain said to me and my siblings growing up.

    • birdwing ( birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
      2·
      11 months ago

      Out of curiosity, I always wondered… when do they start being conscious?

      Like we all don’t remember our first years… but at some point, we know we are, we remember, and we see our hands, and go like, “wtf, i’m a person”, and so on

      • endlessvoid ( endlessvoid@lemmy.today ) English
        2·
        11 months ago

        That’s… tough to define. TBH Consciousness itself is poorly defined.

        Even before they learn language they can communicate, and they respond to their parents voices even in utero. If anything I would say that they just slowly become more conscious over time.

  • twinnie ( twinnie@feddit.uk ) 
    14·
    11 months ago

    I was on a train once and a couple of 20-somethings were complaining about a baby at the opposite end of the empty carriage crying. They said crying babies shouldn’t be allowed on the train.

    I didn’t even have a kid then; didn’t need one to see they were dickheads.

  • wolfeh ( wolfeh@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
    12·
    11 months ago

    So… when my friend’s toddler absolutely refused to eat broccoli at Thanksgiving, guess what I did?

    I loaded up my plate with broccoli, and started enjoying the hell out of it right in front of her. I wasn’t even faking… it was actually really good.

    I offered her a piece of mine, and guess what? She liked broccoli from then on.

    The whole authoritarian “do as I say, not as I do” is bullshit and always had been.

    Kids (and everyone, really) model behaviour. Practice what you preach as a parent, and everything becomes easier. Be a hypocrite, and everything becomes harder. Imagine that. 😁

  • Wren ( Wren@lemmy.today ) English
    8·
    11 months ago

    Everyone should have to babysit two toddlers for a week, at least one with undiagnosed mental health issues, with sugar and screen addictions because the divorced parents are too exhausted from working multiple jobs to deal with them, before they can say anything about parenting.