Well, Grant is finally napping like a "normal" child! He takes one nap in the morning, usually between 9:30 and 10am, and he'll sleep for usually 45 minutes to an hour. In the afternoon, he usually goes down for another nap anywhere between 1:30 and 2:30pm, and he'll almost always sleep for well over an hour (the past couple of days it's been 1.5 hours). And probably even more amazing than the amount of time he's sleeping is that he's not very hard to put down for naps anymore! The past couple of weeks it's been fairly easy; I'll read him a few books and then try to rock and sing to him for a few minutes. But usually at naptime he's too restless to lay there, so I just lay him in his crib. He cries while I walk out the door, but for the most part he'll go right to sleep afterwards. He's been doing this for a while at bedtime, but naps have been unpredictable until now. I used to have to come back in his room and lay him down (or hand him his pacifier if it had fallen on the floor) once or twice before he'd go to sleep. So this is a nice change!
But.....he has been a very badly behaved boy lately! We went to my friend Bethany's house on Saturday for a mommy and baby get-together. Bethany doesn't have kids and her house isn't completely baby-proofed, so Grant kept trying to grab everything he wasn't supposed to have. Every time I'd take something away, he'd collapse on the floor and cry. Or if I picked him up to remove him from an area, he'd slap my face or arch his back to try to get away. It was horrible....I stayed as long as I did because I really wanted to see a lot of the people there (I haven't seen them since Grant was born!). But he has never behaved that badly before. The general guideline I've heard for starting spanking is 18 months, but I look back and think that I probably should've taken him outside and given him a little spanking when he was acting up. At home, when he hits me, I say, "we do not hit mommy," and set him on the floor and walk away. He'll cry and walk back over to me, wanting to be picked up. And he's usually fine after that. But on Saturday, I couldn't do that, because he'd go right back over to what I had taken him away from!
So....the past few days have been hard. Today we had to leave the library early because he was acting up, and then later he fought SO hard getting into his car seat. It took me a few minutes to get him strapped in, and I had to press on his belly so hard to get him to sit down so I could do it. He had a tantrum almost the entire way home.
If anyone reading this has any advice, please comment or send me an email! I don't know what to do?!! He is extremely strong-willed and I know I can't change his personality, but I don't want him to continue acting this way. Help!!
January Lessons
10 years ago
2 comments:
I haven't read it but I heard that Dobson's Strong Willed Child book is helpful. His Bringing Up Boys book is good. I have read part of Shepherding a Child's Heart and I like the info about spanking in it. It's so hard to know what to do!!! Let me know if you discover anything that works well!
Alyssa - my nephew is also a strong-willed child and my sister could definitely empathize with your struggle. I will say that we started spanking Logan's hand long before 18 months and he probably got his first swat on the bottom before that too. You could always tell it hurt his feelings more than his hand/bottom. He is still strong-willed and sometimes still has unbearable days, but he is about to turn 4 and we are seeing big changes in him. My only advice is to remain consistent - don't let his bad behavior slide because you are tired or frustrated. It won't happen overnight, but he will eventually grow out of some of his behaviors and he'll know there are firm boundaries you've set. That doesn't mean he'll turn into a perfect angel, but he will be a better behaved boy and will make you so proud of him!
Post a Comment