Better than chocolate

In my resting state, I am normally allergic to gurus and folk who claim to have the answers to anything & everything (for a fee or magazine subscription).

However that didn't stop me from reading the Parelli book & becoming real friendly with the horseman's halter.

And it didn't stop me from signing up for the Parents Inc course "Toolbox", and subsequently trotting along to the "Hot Tips for Growing Boys" seminar. The six week course finished a week ago, and while it was a bit twee (and also a bit churchified) in places, it was generally extremely interesting.

Of course if you bark like a performing seal they throw you chocolate bars. I went home each night with no less than TWO chocolate bars, except for the night they didn't give any out :-)

For "bark" of course I mean shoot your hand up in the air & be the teacher's favourite at "homework" time :-) Hey, I'm a slut for chocolate. Plus I'm super competitive so I was a goner before I even got there.

But in all seriousness, I went because I know squat about raising a son, apart from the hastily gathered on-the-job training. Figured it would be nice to have some advance skills instead of clever hindsight!

It turns out I'm doing a lot of things right (supposedly), but got some great ideas too.

The seminar was also interesting, but I didn't win a single chocolate bar. I did however win the big prize which was a beautiful dinner set, drawn out of the respondents to the feedback forms (naturally I griped about the abysmal parking, LOL).

Got a few books too, to pick over. Wayne nearly fainted when I struggled through the door at 11pm. Like we need more books... ;-)

Anyhoo, wandering back to the point that Mamabeek correctly made, something needed to be done with Master Braeden's affect control. Yeah so he's just a little fella so one can write off a lot to "terrible twos", but I'm also mindful that he's putting in place a lot now that will be entrenched personality later.

Time to fix some things before they become major issues. Especially as "whack first and blame later" seems to be genetically inbuilt. My big problem was I didn't want to enact the parenting skills I was most familiar with, ie what happened when I was a kid.

To touch lightly on it then skip away, I am not breaking this kid's jaw, okay?

Okay.

So that made me really reluctant to smack. I STILL defend the right of reasonable parents to lightly smack, but I won't because I just don't want to go there. Not sure I was ever shown how to stop, so why start?

So we're using the Stand and Think technique which is kinda like Time Out, but you don't need a room, plus it sets the foundation for the child to reason out their behaviour & communicate their feelings & seek a remedy for themselves.

So far, so good.

Btw Brae's apparently got mild asthma which is why he keeps getting the bot this winter. The stuff just won't evacuate his chest, so it's not always a new flu each time. The steroids are doing a great job (last day of them today), and apparently he's likely to grow out of it. Heh heh.. "grow" out of it. Apparently the only side effect with these steroids is that for the four days he's on them, he won't grow. Dr David & I found that hysterically funny, as Brae is already 94cm tall. Four days without growing, yeah.. such a hard decision!

And the Safe-T-Sleep is back on. We tried for three days and two nights, then cried uncle & put the damn thing back on in the middle of the night. It was just too much to go in several MORE times each night to reposition the grumpy-at-being-woken little man who was scaling Everest in his sleep.

And Mb, you'll find this a hoot. The folks who created & run the course/seminar I went to were vaguely familiar, so I googled them to see why they were skirting around the edges of my memory. Turns out they were Youth Evangelists. (giggles) No wonder religion popped up every so often, I guess I'm lucky it was "every so often".

And another for Mb, I keep remembering the story you told me about your friend & the kiddy who grew up tumbling around with the piglets. Well the other reason Brae went to the doc's this week was an eye infection. It came on quick & with all his other ouchies, I thought it needed looking at.

Turns out it's what happens when your dog licks your child upside the face.

I came home & said "AH-HAH!" to Wayne, "I knew we shouldn't let Auntie Poodle lick the baby!". (We've been arguing a little over this. Wayne thinks I'm being precious.)

Auntie Poodle says if that's my attitude I can wash my own sprog's face from now on, and huffed & sulked off down the hall.