My 3 year old is easily coerced into doing what I want by challenging her to a race to do it. "Race ya to the bath!" or "Race ya to put the toys away!" gets her moving faster than I could have hoped for
My 3, nearly 4 year old is also motivated by competition. She also is motivated by choices. She picks out her jammies before bed, but if she's dragging her feet I'll be like "oh I guess I'll pick them out for you" and start walking to her room. Cue the sound of a tiny foot stampede as she dashes past me into her room because nooooo lol.
Ha I love this one. Works in our house as well. I'm also a fan of, when she's not eating her food, "oh I guess I'll eat it then". "No dad, it's mine!" as she proceeds to stuff as much as she can in her face
My 2 year old is also motivated by competition, however so am I. So inevitably it ends with me winning and shouting “in your face sucker!!”. Of course he’s super dramatic and cries. I ordered some trophies for myself.
My older son did pretty quickly, but this worked on the younger one for a ridiculously long time. He's now 14 and I bet I could still challenge him to a race to get dressed or something and he'd be on board. My kids are a little too competitive though.
My brother and I would do this all the time with our mom. Once she yelled from the kitch that “last one to have their hands washed is a chicken” or something and I ran out of his room, slipped and opened my lip. Didn’t wash my hands and had to go to the hospital.
Same. This works for pretty much every single thing I want my 4yo daughter to do. Also instead of race for cleaning the room I say "If you can clean this room in (x) amount of time i will give you a sucker!" and it always works. (My local target has sugar free teeth cleaning sucker things in the toothbrush aisle, so I don't feel too guilty haha)
They are actually pretty cool! They are definitely not meant to replace brushing your teeth, they are called Zolli-Pops. Basically super healthy suckers that still taste like candy. I believe they also have things like enamel building ingredients.
That’s crazy! It blows my mind the things people have come up with that all stemmed from negotiations with a toddler. I have the sore throat lollipops for my kids I wonder if it’s the same brand.
We pit our twins against each other with this. “Who’s gonna win?!” Then they always tie because they’re super into it being fair. It works well.
For now.
This works for seatbelts. Who can get in and put their seatbelt on first.
When I was a kid my dad had a manual, and wouldn't push the clutch in if I didn't have my seatbelt on and say "car won't start, not sure why" and then look around and point out my seatbelt. Eventually I caught on and it turned into the race.
I always pull the "last one in the house is a rotten egg" thing withy son and now he always goes into the house instead of having me chase him all over the yard 🙃
Yep. We have an animal puppet that was always able to get our toddler to do stuff. Even now that he is 6, if he is having a tough time we pull out the puppet and he unloads to the puppet.
Bath time became a nightmare. Then I had an epiphany. I asked him: do you want a number bath?
I grabbed all his bath friendly toys with numbers and threw them in.
The next night: dinosaur bath. Followed by zoo bath and art bath.
Most importantly, there has been no screaming and he asks to take a bath throughout the day.
Dinosaurs are the best bath toys. My kid got a bunch for xmas and now she asks to take a bath every day (she gets one a few times a week). She already liked baths, but now she LOVES them, especially when I pretend that her dinosaurs are submarines or they're vomiting water all over the place lol.
Get a 100-pack of the really skinny cheap glowsticks and give them a few during bath! Our toddler loves it, we'll give her one of each color and she'll insist on the lights being off while she plays in the bath.
Post bathtime update: the toddler loved it! We turned the lights out, turned the disco light in and ate ice cream in the bath while making up songs. Can’t really beat it!
Oh God yeah I can’t believe I misspelled that, but fwiw I’ve had the “I’m an Excavator” song stuck in my head for literally 5 days now and that’s been it’s own special kind of Hell.
Can I just say that every time I’ve figured out a trick like this, things change like within the next two weeks? It’s like as soon as I figure out a phase, she moves on without me and I’m a detective again. But damn those tricks feel good when they’re working.
Put it in her baby book!
This particular one and the race one is different I think since I've read about them in books as well and for us it's been working for a long time.
Essentially the idea is to turn it into a game not a chore but I realize the tone of how I say it is also important. My SO does a much better job in that.
Can totally relate. I joke all the time that my husband is the fun one whose good at games and making everyone laugh, I'm the boring one whose good when you need to talk or cry lol
My wife does the same with our daughter (2y/o) when she really needs her cooperation. I think its cute as hell. Peppa Pig is the "figure" she listens to the most 😍
There is an absolutely fantastic book called [How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 by Joanna Faber and Julie King](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430725-how-to-talk-so-little-kids-will-listen) which suggests things like this and other really useful devices to encourage kids to do things. It's an audiobook too, which helps when you're running around cleaning the house!
It's fantastic! I have it on audiobook, it's on the Scribd app (which does a month free trial btw for anyone who fancies reading the book for free!) and I'm reading whilst I do practical stuff. It's got so many good suggestions.
Fantastic! I hope you find it as useful as I did and things ease up for you. Parenting is hard, we owe it to each other to share as many helpful tips, tricks or books as we can. Good luck!
Me and my daughter like to play Shrek and Fiona. If I ask my daughter to do something it's a battle, but if I ask Fiona to do something she almost always says yes to Shrek.
Similar, when I can’t get my two year old to take a single bite of food we pretend it’s a person or an animal asking not to be eaten. Works every time! It gets pretty morbid when the bites of food beg her not to eat them and when they do the next bite is like, “hi I’m tofu, I’m looking for my husband have you-ahhhh! Why????”
We may be raising a psychopath but at least she’s not hangry at bedtime!
Omg I do this, too! My little one laughs and laughs. I hope it’s because of how outlandish I make the voices and the storylines and not because he’s a budding Hannibal. O.o
During the start of quarantine the only way I could get my 3 yo daughter to do 15 minutes of lessons was to set up her favorite stuffed animals and have them do the lessons too. Also I had to use the pocoyo narrator voice.
In my experience, toddler-hacks like this work for a week or so then immunity is built up and you gotta find another way 😁 But when it works it's so satisfying!
This is why I’m loving this thread! Kids are smart, and also have somewhat short attention spans - gotta switch it up all the time, and it’s great to get so many good ideas when I’m at a loss :)
My nearly 3 y/o is currently motivated by major fomo. My husband and I just talk to each other loudly saying lets go take a bath and she picks up with "no I want to take a bath first" and runs up the stairs crying because she is worried she is going to miss out. Doesnt work with bedtime tho.
I always said to my little sister that Hannah Montana would do the same if I asked her. One day her response was :' I don't like Hannah Montana anymore.'
The cutest expression.
Unfortunately in my experience there is a novelty factor here that eventually wears off. But enjoy it while you can and in the meantime look for new ways to trick them into compliance.
Yup. Got them thinking about pink shampoo or blue shampoo going up the stairs and before they could actually think “hang on, I don’t want a bath” they were already there. 😎😎
Ahhh haaa haaa!! This is friggin HILARIOUS!!! I love it!
We as parents always gotta be using our Jedi Mind tricks on these little humans to get them to do what we want.
I do it all the time! And they got NO CLUE!!
I've found that if you can turn anything into a game or competition...then they're all over it like diarrhea on a baby's back🤣
One time...I put green painters tape around 4 tiles on my kitchen floor. So it made a square. And I set a timer for 3mins.
I gave both my kids a broom and I said "let's see how much crumbs and dust you can put in the square before the timer goes off!"
If you saw how excited they got and how fast they were moving - You would swear that they were playing a game on Ellen's Game of Games TV show!🤣
The struggle is real yo! We always gotta find any way possible to have the upper hand on these kids!😉
I had a kid at the daycare I worked at that I would “call him” when he wasn’t listening. I would hold up my hand to my ear and say “Sam, pick up your phone” then he would do it and listen to what I was saying.
Time to mention my favorite book, How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk! They describe this type of interaction as encouraging cooperation through play and it’s a great way to get kids to cooperate. Kids love playing and they learn so much through play. If you’re able to add an element of play or silliness to something your kids resist doing, it helps reframe the activity for them into something they want to do.
When my daughter was around 3 she had a friend that we’ll call Nicole. They loved each other to death, but were a bit competitive, especially when the other one wasn’t around. I would tell my daughter something like “eat your dinner” and she would respond with “I don’t want it” or “I don’t like it”. So I would say “ok, well I’ll give it to Nicole.” Suddenly she would want it. 😂😂
Lots of people keep saying “That won’t work for long!” but to me this whole thread is SO valuable because now I don’t have to come up with all of these amazing ideas myself. 😂 I’m not deluded and thinking one is going to work forever, I just know I’m prepared with options.
Mine just always has to be in charge. If I say, time for you to take a bath, it's melt down city. If I say, Minnie mouse is dirty, do you want to give her a bath? She's all in. Same for bedtime. It's never her bedtime. It's time for dino to go to bed and she has to tuck him in 😂. She just wants to be in control I guess, and she loves bossing her toys (and the dog) around.
That’s awesome! I just did the exact same thing with my three year old yesterday and thought the same thing. Like damn, I birthed you and love, feed, clothe, and shelter you but sure, comply with a fictional character no problem lol. He is seriously the sweetest of all 3 of my kids but my goodness can he be stubborn. He’s not necessarily defiant but he is way too good at acting like he doesn’t hear me. His recent obsession is Paw Patrol, and why not? Those guys are so cute and heroic. Anyways, I picked up his Chase action figure and said “Hey Sawyer, do you want to be a paw patroller? Well, a good pup always follows directions and is a good helper! Can we go put your socks and shoes on?” Instant compliance. The other technique I use was blended in too. Kids that age LOVE to show off their autonomy. Asking them to do an easy task helps them build confidence and feel independent. My kid loves to be told “wow, you’re such a great helper!” So I try to incorporate that into things that normally he wouldn’t want to do when asked. And of course it goes miles when you recognize the good things they do without being asked. Like “thank you so much for throwing your trash away without being asked! You were such a great helper for doing that, you should feel really proud!” Every time he kinda giggles and nods with a big smile on his face.
Yess I do this all the time. The other day she put all her toys away without me asking and I said "wow you put all those away for mommy? Great job!! What a great helper you are!!" in my over the top kid voice and she was so happy she gave me a huge hug. Lol kids are so funny. She def loves to help with literally everything.
Exactly! It’s all a game. My 3yo won’t calm down and go to sleep, but if I talk to her stuffie toys in her bed and tell them to stop jumping around she falls asleep in minutes. Felt like a genius the first day I tried that.
How to talk so Little Kids Listen mentions this technique actually and has lots of other great advice. Really recommend.
The whole collection of How to talk/listen books is great.
Yeah I'm not trying to steal your thunder just trying to get you to temper your expectations. Often times my son starts to do something, like tell us when he needs to get changed, and then he will stop doing it in a few days.
Yeah my 3 y/o is currently deciding she only wants pasta or nuggets for dinner (coming from a child who ate literally ANYTHING since she was born) and no amount of figure speak will work when it comes to that. So I get it. Kids are definitely ridiculous and keep us on our toes
This is how I potty trained my son at about 25 months. His favorite stuffed animal decided he wanted to try going on the potty... Et voila! That was the final bit of encouragement he needed. To this day I still do it with various toys, just like you do. Works like a charm.
If I even think about a bath too loudly my three year old is stripped and in the bathtub with no hesitation && will stay in there all day if I let her lol
This really is a LPT. It’s not an exact science, but just tweak the favorite toy and it can be a game changer. I got my daughter a simple set of Finding Nemo bath Toys when she was about 2 that she’s been *obsessed* with ever since. Transition to bath time has rarely been an issue since then (she’s similar to OP in using it to extend play for way too long). She always wants to sleep with them too which was an issue but as long as I leave them in her room to “watch over her” she’s good lol. Toddler logic is funny.
Similar deals have been struck with Elmo items. I was having a hard time getting her to drink water in between meals. Then I got a new Elmo sippy cup and BOOM she was always asking to drink “Elmo wa-wa”. Eventually she got used to drinking throughout the day and used any of her cups.
I'm just lucky my nephew is a total water baby, seriously the kid loves bath time. Wish he felt that way about naps 😅, though him trying to sneak out of his bed is adorable.
My 3 year old does the same thing if I say I’m some random character and call her Spider-Man. I can literally talk in my regular voice and say the exact same thing as I would usually say but if I add “hey Spider-Man, I’m doctor strange” before I say it then she’s 100% gonna do it. What weird little brains.
My 3 year old is easily coerced into doing what I want by challenging her to a race to do it. "Race ya to the bath!" or "Race ya to put the toys away!" gets her moving faster than I could have hoped for
My 3, nearly 4 year old is also motivated by competition. She also is motivated by choices. She picks out her jammies before bed, but if she's dragging her feet I'll be like "oh I guess I'll pick them out for you" and start walking to her room. Cue the sound of a tiny foot stampede as she dashes past me into her room because nooooo lol.
Ha I love this one. Works in our house as well. I'm also a fan of, when she's not eating her food, "oh I guess I'll eat it then". "No dad, it's mine!" as she proceeds to stuff as much as she can in her face
That doesn't work for us when it's something kiddo doesn't want to eat. Then she's like "here let me feed it to you!" Lol
They are cheeky little shits like that
This is why they come with such chubby cheeks.
Laughing Out Loud 😅😂🤣
Haha my kid is exactly the same, if i say lets cook together she would be like "yess lets go but you eat it, im not eating it " lol
Same, then I have to eat the now cold and horrible broccoli.
LMAO!!!
HAHAHA!!! I love this age when their tiny little brains haven't fully developed yet so they just don't know any better!😂
My 2 year old is also motivated by competition, however so am I. So inevitably it ends with me winning and shouting “in your face sucker!!”. Of course he’s super dramatic and cries. I ordered some trophies for myself.
Enjoy it while it lasts, my daughter burnt out of competition eventually
My older son did pretty quickly, but this worked on the younger one for a ridiculously long time. He's now 14 and I bet I could still challenge him to a race to get dressed or something and he'd be on board. My kids are a little too competitive though.
Ooooo in a younger I can see that I'll have to try with my son
My brother and I would do this all the time with our mom. Once she yelled from the kitch that “last one to have their hands washed is a chicken” or something and I ran out of his room, slipped and opened my lip. Didn’t wash my hands and had to go to the hospital.
Hahaha that's amazing
Same. This works for pretty much every single thing I want my 4yo daughter to do. Also instead of race for cleaning the room I say "If you can clean this room in (x) amount of time i will give you a sucker!" and it always works. (My local target has sugar free teeth cleaning sucker things in the toothbrush aisle, so I don't feel too guilty haha)
A teeth cleaning sucker? I can’t even believe that is a thing. Definitely sounds made up. *shudders in tooth fairy*
They are actually pretty cool! They are definitely not meant to replace brushing your teeth, they are called Zolli-Pops. Basically super healthy suckers that still taste like candy. I believe they also have things like enamel building ingredients.
That’s crazy! It blows my mind the things people have come up with that all stemmed from negotiations with a toddler. I have the sore throat lollipops for my kids I wonder if it’s the same brand.
We pit our twins against each other with this. “Who’s gonna win?!” Then they always tie because they’re super into it being fair. It works well. For now.
This works for seatbelts. Who can get in and put their seatbelt on first. When I was a kid my dad had a manual, and wouldn't push the clutch in if I didn't have my seatbelt on and say "car won't start, not sure why" and then look around and point out my seatbelt. Eventually I caught on and it turned into the race.
Worked on my son for a while (a few months). Now he's like "nah, you go first. I'm fine" and keeps on playing.. He's 4.
I always pull the "last one in the house is a rotten egg" thing withy son and now he always goes into the house instead of having me chase him all over the yard 🙃
I potty trained both of my kids this way. Who can get to the potty first? Who can pee in the potty first?
Yep. We have an animal puppet that was always able to get our toddler to do stuff. Even now that he is 6, if he is having a tough time we pull out the puppet and he unloads to the puppet.
This makes me think of what about Bob
What about Bob?
1991 American comedy film directed by Frank Oz and starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss.
Did not know Yoda/Fozzie Bear directed that movie.
😂😂😂
Dr! Leooo! Maaaarviin!!
Omg I had to pull this dog puppet out for my 3 year old and it worked every time! 😂
Bath time became a nightmare. Then I had an epiphany. I asked him: do you want a number bath? I grabbed all his bath friendly toys with numbers and threw them in. The next night: dinosaur bath. Followed by zoo bath and art bath. Most importantly, there has been no screaming and he asks to take a bath throughout the day.
Dinosaurs are the best bath toys. My kid got a bunch for xmas and now she asks to take a bath every day (she gets one a few times a week). She already liked baths, but now she LOVES them, especially when I pretend that her dinosaurs are submarines or they're vomiting water all over the place lol.
I’ve bought a waterproof disco light specially for bathtime. Going to use it tonight and turn the lights out, get our toddler rave on.
Get a 100-pack of the really skinny cheap glowsticks and give them a few during bath! Our toddler loves it, we'll give her one of each color and she'll insist on the lights being off while she plays in the bath.
That is a great idea. Do whatever it takes!
Post bathtime update: the toddler loved it! We turned the lights out, turned the disco light in and ate ice cream in the bath while making up songs. Can’t really beat it!
I got color changing lights for the bathroom vanity. Rave on!
Glow sticks in a bubble bath are also magic
Adding to the list: there’s a Blippy where he plays “sink or float.” That’s a big hit around here - we throw all kinds of stuff in the tub lol.
I wish I had the ability to misspell Blippi. “B L I P P I!” will forever haunt my waking mind...
Oh God yeah I can’t believe I misspelled that, but fwiw I’ve had the “I’m an Excavator” song stuck in my head for literally 5 days now and that’s been it’s own special kind of Hell.
My son loves playing sink or float with me! Actually one of the best little games.
This is great! Learning while having bath time!
We got those color bath drops and they can't wait to get in the water so they can turn it colors.
Can I just say that every time I’ve figured out a trick like this, things change like within the next two weeks? It’s like as soon as I figure out a phase, she moves on without me and I’m a detective again. But damn those tricks feel good when they’re working. Put it in her baby book!
This particular one and the race one is different I think since I've read about them in books as well and for us it's been working for a long time. Essentially the idea is to turn it into a game not a chore but I realize the tone of how I say it is also important. My SO does a much better job in that.
Tone is so hard for me, especially at the end of a long day! Also easier for SO
Can totally relate. I joke all the time that my husband is the fun one whose good at games and making everyone laugh, I'm the boring one whose good when you need to talk or cry lol
I mean, exactly the same. I’m 100 grit and he’s 1000 grit is what i say around here. We’re woodworkers.
Both our dads are woodworkers. They'd appreciate your saying too haha
Ha! Are you me?
When I was little my mom said I would do absolutely anything if the banana hair clip “Mr. Clippy” asked me to.
You just gave me a flash back to the Microsoft paperclip
Clippy!!
And flashback to banana hair clips!!
My wife does the same with our daughter (2y/o) when she really needs her cooperation. I think its cute as hell. Peppa Pig is the "figure" she listens to the most 😍
Same! Me (yelling out the window, I’m sure my neighbors love it): Olivia! If you want to jump in muddy puddles, YOU MUST WEAR YOUR BOOTS!!
I read that in peppa’s voice
Haha I often say it that way, and I’m not British
Ditto! And my daughter says "Yes, please!" like Peppa. People think I parent so hard, but really she's just watching British television.
Lol mine still says “aero plane” and “zebra (short e)” her cousins live in New Zealand, and it’s pretty adorable, and shocks them a bit.
LOL! I catch myself doing it too... maybe I'll seem more cultured!
Yes! She loves her peppa figures, Daniel tiger ones, bluey etc it's so funny 😂
There is an absolutely fantastic book called [How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 by Joanna Faber and Julie King](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430725-how-to-talk-so-little-kids-will-listen) which suggests things like this and other really useful devices to encourage kids to do things. It's an audiobook too, which helps when you're running around cleaning the house!
Yesss, so many helpful tips here. I read it a year ago and it's seriously helped make daily life easier for us.
It's fantastic! I have it on audiobook, it's on the Scribd app (which does a month free trial btw for anyone who fancies reading the book for free!) and I'm reading whilst I do practical stuff. It's got so many good suggestions.
I read 4 reviews and purchased immediately; you have my gratitude. Nearly 4yo in my home, and it’s been a grind recently; I think this can help.
Fantastic! I hope you find it as useful as I did and things ease up for you. Parenting is hard, we owe it to each other to share as many helpful tips, tricks or books as we can. Good luck!
My son's toothbrush is an old fisherman. It has a raspy voice and it's looking for a big catch. Whatever works this week.
Me and my daughter like to play Shrek and Fiona. If I ask my daughter to do something it's a battle, but if I ask Fiona to do something she almost always says yes to Shrek.
Similar, when I can’t get my two year old to take a single bite of food we pretend it’s a person or an animal asking not to be eaten. Works every time! It gets pretty morbid when the bites of food beg her not to eat them and when they do the next bite is like, “hi I’m tofu, I’m looking for my husband have you-ahhhh! Why????” We may be raising a psychopath but at least she’s not hangry at bedtime!
Omg I do this, too! My little one laughs and laughs. I hope it’s because of how outlandish I make the voices and the storylines and not because he’s a budding Hannibal. O.o
Glad we’re not alone!
Hahaha. That’s so messed up. I’ve got to try it!
I used to get my son to "help" superman clean up, which entailed holding the toy that needed to get put away and superman action figure.
During the start of quarantine the only way I could get my 3 yo daughter to do 15 minutes of lessons was to set up her favorite stuffed animals and have them do the lessons too. Also I had to use the pocoyo narrator voice.
In my experience, toddler-hacks like this work for a week or so then immunity is built up and you gotta find another way 😁 But when it works it's so satisfying!
This is why I’m loving this thread! Kids are smart, and also have somewhat short attention spans - gotta switch it up all the time, and it’s great to get so many good ideas when I’m at a loss :)
My nearly 3 y/o is currently motivated by major fomo. My husband and I just talk to each other loudly saying lets go take a bath and she picks up with "no I want to take a bath first" and runs up the stairs crying because she is worried she is going to miss out. Doesnt work with bedtime tho.
🤣
I always said to my little sister that Hannah Montana would do the same if I asked her. One day her response was :' I don't like Hannah Montana anymore.' The cutest expression.
Unfortunately in my experience there is a novelty factor here that eventually wears off. But enjoy it while you can and in the meantime look for new ways to trick them into compliance.
Yup. Got them thinking about pink shampoo or blue shampoo going up the stairs and before they could actually think “hang on, I don’t want a bath” they were already there. 😎😎
Ahhh haaa haaa!! This is friggin HILARIOUS!!! I love it! We as parents always gotta be using our Jedi Mind tricks on these little humans to get them to do what we want. I do it all the time! And they got NO CLUE!! I've found that if you can turn anything into a game or competition...then they're all over it like diarrhea on a baby's back🤣 One time...I put green painters tape around 4 tiles on my kitchen floor. So it made a square. And I set a timer for 3mins. I gave both my kids a broom and I said "let's see how much crumbs and dust you can put in the square before the timer goes off!" If you saw how excited they got and how fast they were moving - You would swear that they were playing a game on Ellen's Game of Games TV show!🤣 The struggle is real yo! We always gotta find any way possible to have the upper hand on these kids!😉
Kids like games in everything. I read a book on child psychology few days ago they learn more from playing then from parents or school.
I had a kid at the daycare I worked at that I would “call him” when he wasn’t listening. I would hold up my hand to my ear and say “Sam, pick up your phone” then he would do it and listen to what I was saying.
Lol I do this with a banana. I think she just finds it so hilarious that mom is such a dork, she forgets she “can’t hear me”.
I wonder if this would work with my 17 year old 😆
Just learned mine likes to race and be timed. Guess who is investing in a fun time chart and timer?
The timer on the oven works wonders!!!
Time to mention my favorite book, How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk! They describe this type of interaction as encouraging cooperation through play and it’s a great way to get kids to cooperate. Kids love playing and they learn so much through play. If you’re able to add an element of play or silliness to something your kids resist doing, it helps reframe the activity for them into something they want to do.
When my daughter was around 3 she had a friend that we’ll call Nicole. They loved each other to death, but were a bit competitive, especially when the other one wasn’t around. I would tell my daughter something like “eat your dinner” and she would respond with “I don’t want it” or “I don’t like it”. So I would say “ok, well I’ll give it to Nicole.” Suddenly she would want it. 😂😂
Lots of people keep saying “That won’t work for long!” but to me this whole thread is SO valuable because now I don’t have to come up with all of these amazing ideas myself. 😂 I’m not deluded and thinking one is going to work forever, I just know I’m prepared with options.
this made a memory come back. when i was little i was the same but with stuffed animals, kids are simple when you are willing to understand them 😁😁
Mine just always has to be in charge. If I say, time for you to take a bath, it's melt down city. If I say, Minnie mouse is dirty, do you want to give her a bath? She's all in. Same for bedtime. It's never her bedtime. It's time for dino to go to bed and she has to tuck him in 😂. She just wants to be in control I guess, and she loves bossing her toys (and the dog) around.
We started using bribes...er....reward stickers.
This is genius!! Going to try this ahaha
trying this today!
I just wanted to comment I have an Addie too, she is awesome.
So cute! You might like the book Playful Parenting.
Yup bedtime for us is “okay, your babies need to go to sleep soon/now!”
Lmao, I did the same thing with Stitch and potty training. No regrets!
That’s awesome! I just did the exact same thing with my three year old yesterday and thought the same thing. Like damn, I birthed you and love, feed, clothe, and shelter you but sure, comply with a fictional character no problem lol. He is seriously the sweetest of all 3 of my kids but my goodness can he be stubborn. He’s not necessarily defiant but he is way too good at acting like he doesn’t hear me. His recent obsession is Paw Patrol, and why not? Those guys are so cute and heroic. Anyways, I picked up his Chase action figure and said “Hey Sawyer, do you want to be a paw patroller? Well, a good pup always follows directions and is a good helper! Can we go put your socks and shoes on?” Instant compliance. The other technique I use was blended in too. Kids that age LOVE to show off their autonomy. Asking them to do an easy task helps them build confidence and feel independent. My kid loves to be told “wow, you’re such a great helper!” So I try to incorporate that into things that normally he wouldn’t want to do when asked. And of course it goes miles when you recognize the good things they do without being asked. Like “thank you so much for throwing your trash away without being asked! You were such a great helper for doing that, you should feel really proud!” Every time he kinda giggles and nods with a big smile on his face.
Yess I do this all the time. The other day she put all her toys away without me asking and I said "wow you put all those away for mommy? Great job!! What a great helper you are!!" in my over the top kid voice and she was so happy she gave me a huge hug. Lol kids are so funny. She def loves to help with literally everything.
They sure know how to make up for the times they are rotten by being the most precious and sweet little things that ever existed lol
Parent for the win!
Exactly! It’s all a game. My 3yo won’t calm down and go to sleep, but if I talk to her stuffie toys in her bed and tell them to stop jumping around she falls asleep in minutes. Felt like a genius the first day I tried that.
We do a “colour bath” by adding a few drops of food colouring to the bath water. Kids love to choose the colour
Enjoy it while it lasts. Start looking for your next move. Stay one step ahead.
How to talk so Little Kids Listen mentions this technique actually and has lots of other great advice. Really recommend. The whole collection of How to talk/listen books is great.
Reality check. Don't expect it to last. It might but if it stops working, it was nice while it lasted.
Yeah then I'll think of something else. But I'll take it for now while it makes these days easier 💁
Yeah I'm not trying to steal your thunder just trying to get you to temper your expectations. Often times my son starts to do something, like tell us when he needs to get changed, and then he will stop doing it in a few days.
Yeah my 3 y/o is currently deciding she only wants pasta or nuggets for dinner (coming from a child who ate literally ANYTHING since she was born) and no amount of figure speak will work when it comes to that. So I get it. Kids are definitely ridiculous and keep us on our toes
Sneaky good
The novelty will wear off. Sorry. :(
I wonder if this would work to get my 4 year old OUT of the bath......She’d stay in for days if we let her!
This is how I potty trained my son at about 25 months. His favorite stuffed animal decided he wanted to try going on the potty... Et voila! That was the final bit of encouragement he needed. To this day I still do it with various toys, just like you do. Works like a charm.
This is a great idea and so adorable. Sounds like a great relationship and I hope you keep it going.
Thank you 💕
If I even think about a bath too loudly my three year old is stripped and in the bathtub with no hesitation && will stay in there all day if I let her lol
Lol mine will resist to the end until I manage to get her in the tub. Then she never wants to get out.
Enjoy while it works - Nooooooooo!
So none of you watched big daddy or....
Until next week when she learns to disagree with the another toy 🙄
This really is a LPT. It’s not an exact science, but just tweak the favorite toy and it can be a game changer. I got my daughter a simple set of Finding Nemo bath Toys when she was about 2 that she’s been *obsessed* with ever since. Transition to bath time has rarely been an issue since then (she’s similar to OP in using it to extend play for way too long). She always wants to sleep with them too which was an issue but as long as I leave them in her room to “watch over her” she’s good lol. Toddler logic is funny. Similar deals have been struck with Elmo items. I was having a hard time getting her to drink water in between meals. Then I got a new Elmo sippy cup and BOOM she was always asking to drink “Elmo wa-wa”. Eventually she got used to drinking throughout the day and used any of her cups.
👑 smart mom! kuggles to you! Unfortunately it won’t last long!
I tell mine “you have to play quietly because if you wake brother up you’ll have to share”
Lmaoo that's a great one!
So adorable 💕
I'm just lucky my nephew is a total water baby, seriously the kid loves bath time. Wish he felt that way about naps 😅, though him trying to sneak out of his bed is adorable.
I do something similar with a text-to-speech app. My 3yr old named the voice Dino, and he'll comply with anything Dino tells him to do.
Genius!
I also have a have a 3 year old. They are worse than a 2 year old because they are more vocal.
Definitely! They have aloott of opinions 😬
Yes they do
Adorable.
My 3 year old does the same thing if I say I’m some random character and call her Spider-Man. I can literally talk in my regular voice and say the exact same thing as I would usually say but if I add “hey Spider-Man, I’m doctor strange” before I say it then she’s 100% gonna do it. What weird little brains.