toddler

Toddler Parenting Workshop

Having kids gets a little crazy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy, productive, and sane. It is your life going by, after all.

I think everyone kind of knows that. But it can be hard to find a balance between an unrealistic Rigid Control Fantasy (let’s all make our kids French!), which your kid won’t do, and the Loosey Goosey of too much indulgent chaos, which no parent can live with for long. 

It helps to have some guidance. Next month, I’ll host a TODDLER PARENTING WORKSHOP where we’ll:

  • review four basic principles of living with a toddler, so you can use your energy wisely, and not waste a lot of time arguing, demanding, controlling, capitulating, feeling ineffectual and sounding like a two year old yourself! 
  • do hands-on role-playing exercises to play out real scenarios, and learn how to apply the stuff we all already know to real life situations. 
  • talk about all the fun stuff: Why your child resists getting her teeth brushed and what to do when she shuts her mouth tight. Why your iPhone is the most appealing thing. What to do when she screams whenever you try to have a conversation with your spouse. How to cope with the daily throw-down when it’s time to put on his coat. Dirty secrets about bedtime, nighttime, picky eating, playground politics, potty learning and new siblings. Yay. 

There are no gimmicks and no techniques. This is about learning to understand what’s going on in your child’s mind and make the most of your interactions, so you can get a little sanity back, without worrying that you’re creating a future monster. Once you get them, toddlers are actually pretty delightful.

The class is for parents of toddlers 11-30 months old.

DETAILS:  

Sunday, February 24, 2013, 10-noon

TAMID Downtown Synagogue*, 299 Broadway, Suite 716

$50 per person or $60 per couple. If you are a former student of mine, you can come for a discount if you bring a full-paying new student or couple.

Register by clicking on the paypal button at left (scroll down from “purchse a workshop”).

AFTER REGISTERING, please email me one or two scenarios that are currently challenging you with your toddler. We will use these real life examples in our session. You can contact me at meredith (at) amotherisborn (dot) com.

*Note:  Tamid members can come to this workshop for free.  Please email me to let me know you are coming. 

Toddler Parenting Workshop

Having kids gets a little crazy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy, productive, and sane. It is your life going by, after all.

I think everyone kind of knows that, but it can be pretty hard to find a good balance between the rigid, unfeeling antipathy of Tiger Moms/French Mamans and the Loosey Goosey of Too Much Indulgent Chaos Bordering On Helicoptery Martyrdom.  

Especially when your baby is now a toddler, walking, beginning to talk … apparently ready to take over the world.

It helps to have some guidance. Next week, I’ll host a TODDLER PARENTING WORKSHOP where we’ll: 

  • review the four basic principles of living with — and working with — a toddler, so that you can use your energy where it helps, and not waste a lot of time arguing, demanding, controlling, capitulating, feeling ineffectual and/or sounding like a two year old yourself!
  • do hands-on role-playing exercises to play out real scenarios that come up with your child and learn how to apply the stuff we all already know to real life situations.

The class is open to parents of toddlers 11-30 months old.  Although you can bring your little one, you may find it easier to pay attention if you leave her at home.  

DETAILS:

TODDLER WORKSHOP II:  Hands-On Problem Solving for Real Parents

Saturday, March 31, 2012, 10-noon, Kinected, 151 W. 19th Street, 2nd Fl.

$50 per person or $60 per couple (use paypal button at left).  If you are a former student of mine, you can come for half price if you bring a full-paying new student or couple.  Contact me to arrange this at meredith (at) amotherisborn (dot) com.


You Don't Need To Be French To Come To This Toddler Parenting Workshop

Perhaps you’ve heard, lately, that French children behave better than Americans, because their folks use superior parenting techniques?  

Since it’s the French, the new book about this comes to us as “wisdom” and not a “battle hymn” (Chinese parenting styles are so last year).   And since folks are apparently more comfortable making fun of the French than the Chinese, the response to this has been more humor and less angst than responses when the Tiger Mom book  came out, as in this Guardian review which totally made me giggle:

American mothers are taught to respond immediately to their child’s demands. ‘Why would you vouloir to faire that?’ said Agathe. ‘It is obvious que all bébés are un morceau d’un fuckwit and haven’t un clue what they wanter. That is why all enfants are made to stander for une heure chaque jour with an ashtray strapped to their têtes.’  … . 

a French maman will dire, ‘Vie est un bitch, et puis you die’ and as a result French children are extremely well-adjusted to existential ennui.

Funny reviews aside, though, Americans love to read parenting books that tell them everything they do is stupid, and that other people in other parts of the world are superior (why is that?).  But here are a few truths you should know:

1.  French toddlers throw food.  Toddlers are toddlers; they aren’t developmentally different from American toddlers.  

2. Their parents may react differently when it happens.  That is about the parents, not the toddlers.  There is no parenting style that can make an 18 month old act like an 8 year old.

3.  You can’t really ever divorce yourself entirely from your culture, so there’s a limit to  how much of a non-native approach you can suddenly morph into.

4.  On the other hand, it’s almost always a good idea to observe what others do and see whether you can learn from them.

Instead of bemoaning our culture and trying to become French, Chinese or whatever it is this year, there are plenty of things you can do and still be you, to guide how you react to normal toddler behavior, and cultivate a decent, enjoyable, appropriate, non-frantic life, yes, even with young children.

Earlier this month I held a Toddler Parenting Workshop where we covered the Four Basic Principles of living with a toddler.  The ideas are not French, or Chinese. If we have to name it, I’d say it’s Pragmatic Parenting, but we can also call it American if you’d like, because I do very much believe that parents don’t need to suspend the Pursuit of Happiness just because they’ve had kids.  They do, however, need to make adjustments, because Happiness with small children isn’t exactly like Happiness when you’re childless. 

Next month there will be another workshop focussed on hand-on practice.  

We will apply the four principles and role-play specific parenting scenarios (like:  how to respond when your kid throws food.  Which they do.  World-wide.).  

If you missed the first Workshop, don’t worry — we’ll have a review of the basics at the beginning.  <But I’m not going to read Frog & Toad again, you’ll have to ask the other students to give you a summary :-)>

Details:  

TODDLER WORKSHOP II:  Hands-On Problem-Solving for Real Parents

Saturday, March 31, 2012, 10-noon, Kinected, 151 W. 19th Street 2nd Fl.  

$50 per person or $60 per couple (use paypal button at left).  If you are a former student of mine, you can come for half-price if you bring a full-paying new student or couple — contact me to arrange this, at meredith (at) amotherisborn (dot) com.

THIS WEEKEND: Parenting Your Toddler

Hey folks — there is still some space in this weekends Toddler Parenting Workshop at Kinected!  Details follow:

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I mean this in the most loving way, but:  Toddlers are crazy.  

Like babies, they are inconsistent, irrational, and loud, and they can’t really do anything for themselves.  Unlike babies, they can move around, talk (back) to you and leave a path of destruction through your home.   

Once you know how to deal with them, though?  They’re actually a lot of fun.

SO:  Come to this Toddler Parenting Workshop and we will discuss:

  • why your child resists getting her teeth brushed and what to do when she shuts her mouth tight and you’re standing there feeling useless.
  • why your iPhone is the most appealing thing to him, and how to navigate his desire to use it 24/7.
  • what to do when she screams in an attempt to prevent you from having a conversation with your spouse. Ever.
  • how to cope with the daily throw-down when you tell him it’s time to put on his coat.
  • dirty secrets about bedtime and nighttime.
  • picky eating and food-fights.
  • playground politics, navigating friendships among toddlers and their parents and caregivers, and
  • new-sibling issues.

Fun stuff, right?  But I tell you — when you can understand what’s going on inside the Toddler Mind, you can make sense of it and have a little of your sanity back, without worrying that you’re creating a future monster.  It can even be really delightful.  

Here are the details:  Toddler Workshop:  Saturday, Feb 11, 2012, 10-12noon, Kinected Center, 151 W 19th Street, 2nd Floor.  $50 or $60/couple.  To register, click the paypal link to the left that says “Parenting Your Toddler.”  

Discount for former students who bring a full-paying friend!  Email me for more info at meredith (at) amotherisborn (dot) com.

Kinected is a wonderful resource for pregnant women and new moms:  find out more here.

You may bring your child, but most parents find it easier to concentrate if their little one isn’t along.