I heard screeching from inside the car while I was pumping gas. I opened the door to the car to these impassioned pronouncements:
Jade (3): She pushed on my leg!
Sarah (6): She grabbed my hair!
I stared at them quizzically for a sec before Jade broke in with her final announcement, directed at me:
“You, poop!”
I couldn’t [...]
First, a sidenote about my last post. All the hitting that is going on, don’t worry, I’m not allowing our home to become a scary/harmful place to be. For one thing, she’s not actually doing it with an intention of causing pain so much as with a need for help/attention, and so even in the [...]
Filed in: child development • cuteness • parenting | September 9, 2009
I said to my mother-in-law the other day, “I think Jade has had a complete personality shift since Carrie was born.” Her response, while witnessing my once mild, accomodating, agreeable child running wildly around the room, emotions high-strung, and thrashing/swinging/hitting anyone in range if she got the least bit frustrated?
“Yes.”
Her conclusion is that Jade [...]
Filed in: child development • family • parenting | September 8, 2009
Hearing Jade say, in the powerful theatrics that comes so naturally to three-year-olds, “And she will prick her finger on the spinning wheel and DIE!” incited a little revelation for me today about my concerns with television and movies–especially those made for kids.
Of course I have the obvious concerns about TV and overstimulation (and [...]
I wanted to respond to this comment but thought some of you who might be interested would probably miss it if I left it in the comments section, so I’m making it it’s own post.
[The Usual Disclaimer applies: Her comment spurred an interesting train of thought for me; I write to think; Some of [...]
Filed in: parenting • self-reflection • spiritual | August 26, 2009
A discussion with Jade (3):
Me: Okay, let’s do that after your nap tomorrow.
Her: Nooooo, I want to do it before my nap.
Me: Okay, that sounds good, we’ll do it before your nap.
Her: Noooooo, I want to do it IN my nap.
Me, accepting futility : Okay, that sounds good.
Her, slightly perplexed but not about to give [...]
Filed in: child development • parenting | August 20, 2009
I actually own The Case Against Competition but haven’t had a chance to read more than the first few pages of it, and even that was several years ago.
I don’t have any hard and fast opinions on competition, not having studied it much at all, but on the surface, I my views are pretty [...]
Filed in: child development • family • parenting | August 11, 2009
Do all kids get so angry sometimes they seem to be “stuck”? Where it doesn’t matter what you do, what you say, there is almost nothing you can do to help them get out of it? In fact, the more you try, the more likely they are to slap their hands over their ears or [...]
Filed in: parenting • self-reflection | July 22, 2009
The Quote: “We must be so careful in speaking to a child. What we say or don’t say, how we say it and when is so very, very important in shaping a child’s view of himself or herself. But it is even more important in shaping that child’s faith in us and their faith in [...]
Filed in: child development • parenting • spiritual | July 13, 2009
The Sugar Bugs in Jade’s teeth: Oh, Jade, don’t let your mama brush your teeth! We want to stay here. We like it in here. We like eating your teeth.
Jade, 3: No, I WILL let my mama brush my teeth! My mama wants me to have teeth! Defiantly opens mouth wide.
We actually haven’t had too [...]
Filed in: parenting | July 11, 2009