Being gentle has its place and is the best way to raise well rounded, regulated children but boundaries have got to be set x
9 out of 10 times distraction. When she starts getting funny about getting dressed, I spare 2 minutes to start paying attention to her doll or a hair bow or something, then a 'bribery' - do you want to help me make coffee? Let's gets dressed, quickly quickly. 9 out of 10 times works. We get very few tantrums, because I try to distract when I feel like it's coming. And understanding that tantrums are usually their way of saying we just interrupted what they were doing and they feel that's the enernal it for that activity
@Sophie gentle parenting is about setting boundaries in a compassionate way and understanding why child is behaving that way, doesn't mean letting kids do whatever 😊
I absolutely know what gentle parenting is. I said there's a line between that and letting children do what they want which is what I think a lot of people think gentle parenting is.
I can see how people get confused with permissive parenting, I just want to get it right, we definitely use a lot of distraction 😂 @Lenka
Distraction!! Or giving her a choice. Recently what works the best is pretending the items of clothing are talking to her, e.g. sock says she wants a cuddle with your toes 😅 trying to factor in extra time to allow for the inevitable battle. Sometimes singing this is the way we put on our... works surprisingly well or I tell her the story of Goldilocks to distract 🤷 sometimes I do feel myself loosing it and have to walk away to stop myself shouting just fucking put the trousers on lol but having lots of techniques to try has helped!! I'm constantly adding to the mental list of distraction techniques as I think this will go on for a few years 😩😩😩
How to talk so little kids will listen is a great book with loads of techniques, would deffo recommend!! X
You can say nicely, for example, time to go upstairs. Repeat it again, time to go upstairs, and if they still aren't doing it, then say you're struggling to go upstairs, so now mummy is going to help you and lift them. They may kick and scream. They are toddlers, after all. It's more about remaining calm and patient (yourself). Parent time out is needed haha
I think there's a fine line between gentle parenting and letting children do what they want. I don't have the answer but in my opinion, ultimately, you're the parent, they're the child. If they need their coat on to go out, they need it on. I don't think saying you're leaving will cause fear of abandonment.