Look At Me

My apologies for not posting a new blog in a while. Lots of work work and high level parenting going on lately. Owen is really getting in to "Do It Myself" mode, which entails me asking him to do something and his immediate response is "NOOOOOOO!!!!!! I do it myself!" Even if it's something he wants to do.

This has definitely been difficult to deal with, since my previous tactic was giving him about 10 seconds to respond before picking him up and taking him/putting him wherever I need him to be. However, I can't make him pee in a toilet or eat his dinner. This was so much easier when "We need to go to the store," so we go, diaper in place. Now, it's, "We need to go to the store so can you please go to the potty?" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I DON'T WANNA GO POTTY." As he's doing the dance and holding it.

So I needed a new tactic. I call it the 'Look At Me' approach and I'm pretty damn proud of myself. I'm sure it's in some parenting books, but who's got time to read books when I have two youngin's yelling at me all day. Maybe I picked it up by watching Super Nanny with the wife and watching the REALLY bad parents.

You get down on his level, say authoritatively, "Owen, look at me. We need to go to the store, can you please see a man about a dog?" It usually works to get him to calm down and realize his eyeballs are floating. My evil plan has gotten him to use the potty before leaving the house, put pants on, take pants off, go inside, and whatever else I want him to do.

An alternative to this is the two options tactic. "Owen, look at me. I know you want to go to the playground naked and pee on the slide, but we need to wear pants. Do you want to wear this pair, or these ones. Yes, we will still go out in public with the mismatched shirt so your Mommy will be horrified at Daddy's clothing choices."

Just last night, I used 'Look At Me' to good effect during dinner. "Owen," I said calmly, "Look at me, I need you to sit down in your chair and eat. And please try to keep your penis from dangling in your dinner."

Yes, I said that at the dinner table, just before we played good hugging robot/evil baby-eating robot with his stuffed robot. Maybe letting him come to the dinner table without pants isn't the BEST parenting in the world, but you have to pick your battles.

CK