The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block 2-Book Bundle pdfdrive com

your dolls inside. Which one would you like?”
With an older toddler, you might use a timer:
For five miserable minutes, three-and-a-half-year-old
Jackson nagged his dad to play. Craig resisted
because he was making dinner. Then he remembered
the tip of putting whining “on hold”: “Okay, you win.
You win. I’ll play a tiny bit,” he said. But just as
Craig started to leave the stove, he put up one finger
and announced, “Wait! Wait!!” as if he suddenly
remembered something.
He reached for the timer, set it for twenty seconds,

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and said, “I’m sooo sorry, Jackster! I forgot … I have
to do one more thing. Mr. Dinger will ding really soon
and then we can play and have fun!”
Jackson paused his rant and waited quietly. The
instant the timer went off, Craig clapped and said,
“Good waiting. Now tell me what you want.”
“Play with me,” Jackson said in a calmer tone,
holding two cars in his hand.
Craig chirped, “Sure, buddy.” He sat down with his
son, but a few seconds after starting to play Craig
suddenly stopped, saying, “Oh, wait! Wait! Oh, silly
Daddy, I almost forgot I have to make the salad. Just
one more minute.” And he got up and set the timer
again.
Craig briefly worked on the salad until the dinger
rang again, then stopped to offer a compromise:
“Good waiting. We can play for one little minute right
now, or we can play for five big minutes later if you
wait nicely while Daddy makes salad.”
Just like the parents in the cartoon on
this page
, this long way
around will require some extra effort from you, but you’ll find that
over time, it will keep you from falling off the cliff into endless
conflicts and fights.