Mine's kind of a long game because it requires older siblings. I've always used M&M's as a reward for potty training, and when I started training my third kid, I made sure to give her older siblings (4 and 6) a couple M&M's to join in the celebration when she used the potty. That happened maybe twice before they picked up on it and started encouraging her to pee on the potty every 20 minutes, and from there I just sat back and handed out M&M's while they did the potty training.
Not my idea, but one of my friends tells her kids only one kid in the world can watch a show at a time. So sometimes they can’t watch Daniel Tiger because another kid is watching him right now. 😂
When my kids don’t want to get in the car to go somewhere I sometimes tell them they’ll miss out because their stuffy/toy is driving the car today. Then they get excited to see the stuffy drive and I hold the stuffy up to the wheel like he’s driving. unfortunately the stuffy is a very bad driver so he swerves the wheel a lot and I have to yell at him and correct his driving. Sometimes he even honks and of course, must be reprimanded.
My kids (and the kids I babysit) used to get whiny and weepy if their snack had some perceived flaw, like a slice of cheese with a crack in the middle or a cracker with a broken corner, so I told them if any part of their snack breaks they get to make a wish on the broken part. Now the four-year-olds compete for the cracks in the cheese 😅
This reminds me of when my cousin was complaining about lumps in her Malt-o-Meal, so my brother and I told her how we competed to see who got more lumps, and my mom was shaking her head over the acknowledgement of her lumpy Malt-o-Meal. 😂
My hack to deal with my three-year-old's meltdowns is to try to distract her by pointing something out that is nearby us and identifying it completely wrong. If we are outside and a blue car drives by, I will say "Look at that big yellow bus." 9 times out of 10 she will stop crying or freaking out and say, "No mama that isn't a bus. That is a blue car." She loves correcting me and it is normally enough to stop the big feelings.
When I had a very competitive 3yo, I discovered that if I wanted to give him something, all I had to do was offer it to his little brother. Sometimes I had to make the offer very quietly so the little brother wouldn’t hear me :P
And of course my favorite way to serve bananas is to slice them up and put the plate on the table with a big announcement: “I am so excited to eat these bananas! I sure hope no monkeys come along and eat up my bananas before I get to eat them!”
Somehow those darn monkeys always seem to get there before me.
In the middle of winter, I used to put the kiddie pool in the kitchen and let them put on bathing suits to sit and play in a tiny bit of water with some plastic toys. If you got out, pool time was over. I got a 1/2 hr of no fighting every time.
My other water trick: a small sippy cup with handles, no cover, a little water, and a paint brush. I’d let them “paint” the outside of the kitchen appliances and then their plastic toys over a plastic storage container. Another half hour of quiet.
Very minor, but my toddler is obsessed with keys. Except I don't actually want her to lose important keys like the ones for the house or car 🙃 so I put together a key chain of leftover key tags or charms and those are her 'keys.' She loves them and they are a great distraction at many moments!
This is not novel and it’s taken me far too long to adopt it when dinner time gets tricky, but my two-year-old just magically eats her food when I arrange it into shapes. Food on her plate? No thanks. Food arranged into a face on her high chair tray? Somehow way more delicious 🤷🏻♀️ I only do it with food I know she actually likes, though - I don’t think any trick would make her eat lettuce…
Mine's kind of a long game because it requires older siblings. I've always used M&M's as a reward for potty training, and when I started training my third kid, I made sure to give her older siblings (4 and 6) a couple M&M's to join in the celebration when she used the potty. That happened maybe twice before they picked up on it and started encouraging her to pee on the potty every 20 minutes, and from there I just sat back and handed out M&M's while they did the potty training.
Not my idea, but one of my friends tells her kids only one kid in the world can watch a show at a time. So sometimes they can’t watch Daniel Tiger because another kid is watching him right now. 😂
“You know that only Nana and Papa’s house gets Paw Patrol; we don’t have that here at our house.”
When my kids don’t want to get in the car to go somewhere I sometimes tell them they’ll miss out because their stuffy/toy is driving the car today. Then they get excited to see the stuffy drive and I hold the stuffy up to the wheel like he’s driving. unfortunately the stuffy is a very bad driver so he swerves the wheel a lot and I have to yell at him and correct his driving. Sometimes he even honks and of course, must be reprimanded.
Lucy this is so chaotic (complimentary)
You wouldn’t last a minute in the car with Ms. Fritter, the bus from Cars, driving
Taking notes
My kids (and the kids I babysit) used to get whiny and weepy if their snack had some perceived flaw, like a slice of cheese with a crack in the middle or a cracker with a broken corner, so I told them if any part of their snack breaks they get to make a wish on the broken part. Now the four-year-olds compete for the cracks in the cheese 😅
This reminds me of when my cousin was complaining about lumps in her Malt-o-Meal, so my brother and I told her how we competed to see who got more lumps, and my mom was shaking her head over the acknowledgement of her lumpy Malt-o-Meal. 😂
My hack to deal with my three-year-old's meltdowns is to try to distract her by pointing something out that is nearby us and identifying it completely wrong. If we are outside and a blue car drives by, I will say "Look at that big yellow bus." 9 times out of 10 she will stop crying or freaking out and say, "No mama that isn't a bus. That is a blue car." She loves correcting me and it is normally enough to stop the big feelings.
This is such a good one!
When I had a very competitive 3yo, I discovered that if I wanted to give him something, all I had to do was offer it to his little brother. Sometimes I had to make the offer very quietly so the little brother wouldn’t hear me :P
And of course my favorite way to serve bananas is to slice them up and put the plate on the table with a big announcement: “I am so excited to eat these bananas! I sure hope no monkeys come along and eat up my bananas before I get to eat them!”
Somehow those darn monkeys always seem to get there before me.
In the middle of winter, I used to put the kiddie pool in the kitchen and let them put on bathing suits to sit and play in a tiny bit of water with some plastic toys. If you got out, pool time was over. I got a 1/2 hr of no fighting every time.
My other water trick: a small sippy cup with handles, no cover, a little water, and a paint brush. I’d let them “paint” the outside of the kitchen appliances and then their plastic toys over a plastic storage container. Another half hour of quiet.
Lol love this one
Very minor, but my toddler is obsessed with keys. Except I don't actually want her to lose important keys like the ones for the house or car 🙃 so I put together a key chain of leftover key tags or charms and those are her 'keys.' She loves them and they are a great distraction at many moments!
This is not novel and it’s taken me far too long to adopt it when dinner time gets tricky, but my two-year-old just magically eats her food when I arrange it into shapes. Food on her plate? No thanks. Food arranged into a face on her high chair tray? Somehow way more delicious 🤷🏻♀️ I only do it with food I know she actually likes, though - I don’t think any trick would make her eat lettuce…
I came across this great one yesterday, about the author's mother's grocery store strategy.
https://charliebecker.substack.com/p/get-into-character
definitely not novel, but asking "which of your friends (stuffed animals) can help?"
even if she won't take her shoes off or let me do it, there's about a 70% chance she'll let Tiger or Bunny help
Zamora Chaney’s trick of changing the language on a tv program. I laughed out loud!!! Genius👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I love the Cheerios on the
floor idea! So funny!!