Now is the time.....

I get an e-mail from BabyCenter each week, letting me know what my toddler may be up to that week. Some of them are like "DUH" and then others reinforce the ideas I thought were in my babies' heads but I wasn't sure. This one is right on time - the boys are testing our limits these days and now is the time to teach them right from wrong:

"Your toddler is learning which of his tricks get a laugh out of you, and which bring your disapproval. He's studying your reactions, so now's a good time to start teaching right from wrong by cheering on "good" behavior (picking up a toy and putting it in the toy box) and frowning on "bad" (throwing the toy across the room). And don't forget to watch what you say and do around your child: Imitation is one of the ways toddlers learn socially acceptable behavior."

Then the e-mail listed 11 bad habits babies may be picking up on and how to deal with these behaviors. I printed 6 out of 11 of them. Overall, the articles seem to be saying the same thing: remove your child from a situation that is getting him into trouble.  They do not understand your explanations ("it's not nice to hit your brother; how would you like it if he hit you?") so the one thing you can do that they DO understand is (insert bad behavior here) = removal from fun.  They recommend one minute of time-out per age (which we were already doing b/c I've seen Super Nanny :) and consistency (don't wait until the 3rd time they do it - at this age, they don't understand 2nd and 3rd chances - you have to discipline the 1st time they do it).

I'm not writing all of this so that you can learn how to parent.  Everyone who read this blogs has kids and has already been there, done that.  I'm writing this so I can 1) be held accountable for sticking to it and 2) look back and see how clueless I really was when the boys were babies.  Everyone says they did a better job raising their 2nd child b/c they knew better.  Well, I don't have that chance.  I'm raising 2 at once and do not plan on going through this again.  So, just like I look back at my first year of teaching and think "gosh, I really didn't have a clue what I was doing", I'm sure I will look back in a few years on this stage of my life and think the same.