Sorry & cuddles

Generally N’s quite a good little boy.  We rarely (touch wood) have tantrums, and even when we do have a bit of a mood swing and moan, he seems to be quite easily distracted to avoid whatever incident might be about to occur.

But we have recently seen a few incidences where he’s decided to try his luck even though he’s been told before that he shouldn’t do something due to it being dangerous.  In the past he might have tried doing something, e,g, pushing back/swinging on chairs at the table, picking up knives, turning the light plug on and off in his bedroom (don’t think I’ll ever get him to stop doing that as he thinks he’s being helpful), but now he likes to push his luck and try it again.

So we’ve got the Supernanny style –y explanation/tell off going on.  Of course, he knows even at 2 that he’s done something wrong so doesn’t want to look at me when he knows he’s getting a telling off.  I explain that he’s done something that I’ve told him not to do, the reason why he shouldn’t do it….usually I have to hold his face and move so I’m right in front of his eyes otherwise he won’t look at me at all.  At first it took him ages to say sorry without prompting, but now he’s funny and says cuddle and snuggles in as soon as he recognises that mum’s down next to him and about to tell him off. We usually get a sorry after the cuddle which of course is the wrong way round. I’m not sure he really knows yet what sorry means, but he stops doing what he’s doing – I guess it’s a distraction anyway for him – and we’re onto the next thing so it works to stop him doing something wrong.

We’ve not had to establish a naughty step yet. Not sure how it would go down and how long it would take for him to learn to sit still somewhere on his own for 2 minutes, but we’ve not had to test it yet.

Although I’m the one that usually has to discipline him (he’s only with his dad when it’s exciting things like being round the farm or chilling or playing so rarely plays up) at the moment, it’s handy because we don’t have to discuss really how we’re going to discipline him as he gets older. Hopefully the threat of ‘not going out on the farm’ will work with his dad, and I’ll continue the way we’re going. His cousins are all pretty good kids too, so I’m hoping that he’ll largely be pretty good and we’ll avoid any dubious actions until he’s quite a bit older.

I think on the whole I’m pretty chilled out by what he can and can’t do.  Unless something’s going to cause damage or it’s dangerous, then really is it going to cause much hassle in the short (and long) term? Unless he hits 3 and decides to turn into the pre-schooler from hell, I’m hoping he’ll continue to be fairly chilled and avoid any of the naughty toddler habits that you hear about or see.

Fingers crossed.