A day off, apparently

[ailbhe]

Linnea seems to be having a day off. She woke in a good mood, but refused to eat even the breakfast foods she asked for, having milk instead (incidentally, I like sitting beside the jasmine in the morning cloud-filtered sunshine feeding a toddler who is getting visible comfort from it and who can say "thank you" afterwards. We must trim the jasmine more often so it flowers more). She was then a bit whiny and subdued, but refused bread and butter, bread and jam, porridge, bananas - all her usual foods, nu-uh. I suggested television, and she was pleased by that; she's sitting quietly watching telly now.

Soon I'll try to feed her some solid food again, and take her to the co-op and the library on the bus. We need to swap books over, and I want her to have another go at buying something; she's done handing-over-money-and-giving-me-the-change only once before, as far as we know. She seemed to enjoy it. She also likes giving the librarian the books to get checked out, though actually letting go of the books can pose problems.

I'm hoping that the time vegetating in front of the telly will rejuvenate her enough to go out. It's very unusual behaviour for her unless she's ill. Normally if she wants quiet she'll take cuddles or drawing or reading or being read to. Still, it's about a week since she last watched TV so perhaps she just wanted to. Who knows?

She has started choosing wordier books from the library, and she tends to learn them off by heart after only one or two readings, where it used to take a lot of repetition. She still mainly reads to herself, except for bedtime and occasional cuddly reading sessions. If I want to read to her I need to produce a book she hasn't seen before :)

Comments

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I find toddler non-activity quite hard to deal with, generally - I tend to over-analyse and wonder whether she's ill or hates me or is withdrawn through some trauma I don't know about. Wheras actually, sometimes I choose to sit and doodle in the carpet pile with my finger, so why shouldn't she?

Gnome's started reading to herself recently, though I think less out-loudishly than Linnea does. Her version is very much about pointing out the important things in the pictures, and sometimes talking to the characters.

[ailbhe]

I still love the Hungry Caterpillar reading Linnea gave a while ago. We were talking about him again today and I asked if Linnea was going to be a beautiful butterfly; the idea was quite upsetting, apparently.

(TV is off, but we're still not leaving the house. At least she's eating now.)

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy that! At the moment the best bit of Gnome's readings is getting some insight into her thoughts - the tiger who came to tea looks like a cat when he's on all fours, but a man when he's on two feet. Also, beer belongs to "Didi" (my partner, in Gnomespeak).

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

I was talking to one of my sisters last night - two of them spent part of last week at CentreParc in Longleat - and she really crystallised something that sums up those I think are good parents - a category you practically lead.

This particular sister's boys are demons - and completely exhausting. I spent quite a bit of time child-wrangling in the couple of hours I spent with them at Longleat. But there's one thing I think sums up a good parent - they teach their child that they are not the only person in the world and that they have to interact with and be considerate of others. And my sisters do that.

And the difference it makes is amazing. On the way back to my car, I was accompanied by one sister and a brother-in-law (diff. sister's husband) and the three boys. And I wound up child-wrangling on the whole. Three little boys, aged between six and three, running around, playing around, getting in the way of people - who *smiled*. And I think they smiled because if the boys started blocking people, I reminded them that there were other people around and the boys promptly got out of their way.

Of course, it could have been smiles along the lines of "poor you, are they all yours?", but it really made me realise just how few parents these days seem to bother to teach their children from a young age - or any age - that other people deserve consideration.

[ailbhe]

Mm. Moments at Tigglers Togglers on Wednesday when a child actually *wrestled* with Linnea to the point of having permanently stretched the neckline of a dress. Child's mother wasn't entirely up to speed on removing her child from the situation - attempted to *talk* her out of it. There are times when force is justified, IMO.

[ms-interpret.livejournal.com]

Agreed! My child was once just about to strike another child, and I could see it coming. I kind of shouted, "Josie! Stop!", and when she didn't seem to hear me, I grabbed her from the situation and turned her around to look at me. Later the other child's mother accused me of child abuse and suggested we not get the kids together again because she couldn't have me "modelling that abusive behaviour". *sigh* I wonder what she'd have done if my child had hauled off and walloped hers.

[ailbhe]

More importantly, what would she have done if her child had threatened to wallop yours?

[ms-interpret.livejournal.com]

Heh. Good question.

Her child was (is?) a very non-violent type, and so she couldn't see where mine was heading. As it turned out, when I asked Josie later, was she going to hit him, she said, "Oh yes. It was good you stopped me!"

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

It's the "my little darling is perfect and everyone else must acknowledge that" syndrome. My sister said that CP was lovely, but they could have done without the other kids, so I think they had a heavy dose of spoilt brats there (since neither of them is usually bothered by other kids being around).

Actually, what triggered my comment was the bit about teaching Linnea to shop and to give back the library books.

[ailbhe]

Another "But doesn't everyone?" moment for me, then. I thought you were making an almost total non sequitur remark. Heh. (She LIKES shopping. She often tells me to "Buy things with money", or "Pay lady now").

[flybabydizzy.livejournal.com]

Duh, no, they don't!!! SO many mothers are just to wrapped up in themselves and their worries to take the time to teach their kids to interact with the world, never mind about taking reponsibilty for their interactions with others. Shut the *** up, have a dummy and a packet of crisps is more likely

[niallm.livejournal.com]

'Bay Munny! Bay Munny!' as O says. He likes handing over the money, and he won't let go of the change until he sees mama again :-)