Jack has some kind of problem with my glasses, in that he likes to grab them and throw them to the floor.
Bending steel and outrunning a speeding bullet are one thing. But constantly trying to keep your glasses on your face while protecting a secret identity? Yeah, Superman, I kind of get why you and Lois won’t take the plunge. (Fellow comic book geeks will likely take umbrage. They prefer more complicated and “realistic” explanations for such things, like how human and Kryptonian DNA is incompatible.)
This is a behavior we want-slash-need to nip in the bud. Because in addition to the glasses throwing, he’ll sometimes grab at the nose, slap or pinch the cheek.
The wife is reading, “How to Say No to Your Toddler.” Which sounds too much like the kind of book you’d read as you’re training a dog to quit chewing your furniture. “How To Set Boundaries With Your Puppy.”
It’s not that we don’t say ‘no’ to the boy. It’s more like he understands us, then ignores us, like it’s a game. He’ll stop what he’s doing — usually climbing something or putting one of the dog’s toys in his mouth — look at me, smile, then go back to his climbing or dog toy eating. Physical removal from the setting is usually the best option.
I’ve held his hands and said ‘no.’ I’ve put him in his pack and play and left the room for twenty seconds. I don’t want to have to start taping my glasses to my head.
I can appreciate that the boy is developing a healthy mistrust of authority. But how do you teach a fifteen-month-old that behaviors, especially bad ones, have consequences?
Alan Kercinik is a marketing type/dad who, right now, is probably hanging out with his wife, walking the dog, reading, listening to music, ranting about some movie or television show, toiling away on a novel or telling his son not to climb on something. The opinions expressed on Always Jacked are his, but they are probably influenced by his wife.
