Chasing Cheerios

Monday, March 3, 2008

"Its your turn..."

This is a strategy that dh started using with O months and months ago, and it has worked so well that I thought I should share. Whenever O starts crying due to tiredness or just fussiness, he asks her if she wants dada to cry. Sometimes she'll say no, stop crying, and thats the end of it. Other times she either doesn't answer him or says yes, he pretends to cry and then stops and says "ok, its your turn to cry." She ALWAYS says no and refuses to cry. She sometimes looks at us like we are crazy because she can't believe that we are telling her to cry. Its hilarious, and it works every time. We try not to over use this because we don't want it to stop working. We also don't do this if she is crying over being hurt, etc. Let me know if anyone tries something like this. I'm curious to see if it works for others.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, this is a GREAT idea. Showing empathy toward a child who is feeling "sad" or angry is so empowering for them! This technique reminds me so much of Lawrence Cohen's work. If you haven't read "Playful Parenting", you definitely should. It's amazing.

    ReplyDelete