Above all other childish infractions, the cardinal sin in my hierarchy of wrongful behaviors is and always has been whining. It annoys me in toddlers, it grates on me in teenagers, and it infuriates me in adults. I know that I hid self-righteous eye rolls when I heard strangers' children hit that ear-bleed-inducing mew, swearing that *my* children would quickly learn that this behavior was simply unacceptable. And now....
Eden whines from the minute she wakes up (no exaggeration, I swear) to glorious bedtime. Over anything and everything. Yeah. Totally rad.
I am constantly contemplating reasons, strategies, explanations: is she over-tired? Over-stimulated? Have I or Derek or grandparents fostered the Whine inadvertently? Should I ignore more? Have more discussions? Be more lenient and chill out? Take a few days and put the schmack down (not literally, put down the phone...) I now KNOW that whining is a normal response for children. But how much is too much? How can it be discouraged? And most importantly, WHEN WILL IT PASS?!
Until then:
12 comments:
Hilarious! Love the picture. Like I said, I always get a good laugh when reading your blog.
Elizabeth (who links through Jenny's blog)
love it :)
Great pic, although not appetizing to me at all! This too shall pass!
It is Jason Spykerman. Small world.
I think I will prefer the gr****** babies. Wait, that may only work for me. I'll keep you posted and good luck with that.
Okay, so the help I've gotten so far from my desperate plea includes "it'll pass" and "good luck with that."
I'll go with "this too shall pass."
my child still whines and she is almost five. and her brother is slowly picking it up...awesome. no seriously, though she is older than little E, I either ignore her or I call her out on it and she has to have a "silent moment" for the sake of her mother's sanity. two things I don't put up with: conspiracies and whining. and may I just say, I have never heard your child have a "real whine" which either means I don't see you enough or you need to borrow my child to compare whines (it is very different when they can talk back to you like a teenager). longest comment ever. and, therefore, I don't even need to sign my name.
okay, I felt bad for saying such things about my lil children because they rock and they are really good, most of the time, but seriously, I do know where you are coming from and having a brother that she can play with soon enough will really help make the day go by....because whine or no whine, I still wouldn't trade being a mommy for any alien phenomena in the planet...
If you Google "whining in toddlers" you will find many articles of interest...there's a site called "raisingkids" that had some really good advice. I especially liked refusing to listen until the child uses a normal voice. (I've used that one with Sam over the years) My best advice? Make sure you get some "away" time now & again like you're getting tomorrow. It allows you to breathe and regroup!
• I suggest "Making Children Mind without Losing Yours" by Kevin Leman (anything by him is good. You might like the birth order books too).
• All kids love attention, good or bad. Reward good behaviors with attention and bad behaviors with no attention or attention they do not want.
• I could really go on about this topic…. But I’ll hold back.
--Xina
Making Children Mind without Losing Yours - Kevin Leman. Really, anything by him is good.
Behavior of children is one of my favorite topics, although I certainly do NOT handle everything perfectly. Nor do my dumplings always comply.
As a start, I'd have a talk about nice voices and "whiny" voices and reward the nice voice.
--xina
Aaah, quit your whining....:)
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