It's hard to reason out to a tired toddler, you will just waste your time and energy talking without getting through him.
One Sunday we went to the 12 noon mass in our church. I know the timing was not right as it was so close to nap time but we still went anyway. I don't usually do outing close to naptime, but we didn't have a choice at that time. Anyway, my son was behaved for the first part of the celebration just sitting quietly while browsing through his books. And then he got bored, got up and wanted to walk around. Walking around quietly is just fine I guess since we were in the crying room of the church anyway. Crying room is where parishioners with young kids are encouraged to stay so as not to disrupt the celebration. But my son was also making noises stomping his feet or jumping up and down, I guess to entertain himself. The more you tell him to stop the more he'd make the motion faster and louder. Or he would lay on his stomach on a pew and swing his legs up and down, making loud noise as he dropped the tip of his shoes on the pew. Any distractions I tried were completely futile. And when I scooped him up back to our pew, he'd scream and wiggle out.
Then the time to leave came and he didn't want to put his jacket, hat and gloves on. He was arching his back and crying desperately. So I just did it his way, I carried him and just covered him with his jacket and left. Halfway back to the house, the poor kid dozed off in his car seat, he was really tired.
Kids tell us something from their actions. They can be very sweet and cheerful cherubs one minute and transforms into an unreasonable wailing 'monster' next. Timing is really important. As much as I can avoid it, I won't take my son out to eat in a restaurant, or attend church, or do any outing close to naptime or bedtime, because it would be like calling for trouble. What is your strategy with
One Sunday we went to the 12 noon mass in our church. I know the timing was not right as it was so close to nap time but we still went anyway. I don't usually do outing close to naptime, but we didn't have a choice at that time. Anyway, my son was behaved for the first part of the celebration just sitting quietly while browsing through his books. And then he got bored, got up and wanted to walk around. Walking around quietly is just fine I guess since we were in the crying room of the church anyway. Crying room is where parishioners with young kids are encouraged to stay so as not to disrupt the celebration. But my son was also making noises stomping his feet or jumping up and down, I guess to entertain himself. The more you tell him to stop the more he'd make the motion faster and louder. Or he would lay on his stomach on a pew and swing his legs up and down, making loud noise as he dropped the tip of his shoes on the pew. Any distractions I tried were completely futile. And when I scooped him up back to our pew, he'd scream and wiggle out.
Then the time to leave came and he didn't want to put his jacket, hat and gloves on. He was arching his back and crying desperately. So I just did it his way, I carried him and just covered him with his jacket and left. Halfway back to the house, the poor kid dozed off in his car seat, he was really tired.
Kids tell us something from their actions. They can be very sweet and cheerful cherubs one minute and transforms into an unreasonable wailing 'monster' next. Timing is really important. As much as I can avoid it, I won't take my son out to eat in a restaurant, or attend church, or do any outing close to naptime or bedtime, because it would be like calling for trouble. What is your strategy with
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