Feb 09 2009
Don’t Touch That!
“Don’t touch that.” It would be interesting to know exactly how many times throughout a single day I say that little three word phrase.
Sam wants to help with everything. He wants to help cook, clean, feed Baby Max, and much more. The problem is this: his kind of help isn’t always my kind of help. It isn’t really help when he wants to stir the eggs and spills sticky and runny eggs all over the counter. It isn’t really help when he “sweeps” up my dirt pile, but ends up scattering the dirt all over the floor again. And it isn’t really help when he wants to feed Baby Max and ends up eating the food himself. Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the effort and interest he puts into wanting to help me. However, I do not appreciate the extra work that his kind of help usually causes me to have!
Sam, like most toddlers, is very curious and eager to learn. He wants to touch everything so that he knows how it works. He experiments with objects and manipulates materials just to learn a little bit more about his world. All of this “help” and exploring is really just encouraging him to develop physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
I need to limit using those three little words to only the times when his safety and health could be affected. I need to make sure that I am allowing him enough time for safe exploration and set appropriate limits for him. Our home is already pretty child-friendly. Sam knows to keep his hands off of my “pretty’s” and he has plenty of toys in all parts of the house that he is allowed to play with. Rather than just saying, “Don’t touch that”, I need to explain why he cannot touch it. Scissors are sharp, they will cut you. The oven is hot, it will burn you. If you pull on that it may fall over and hurt your toes. It is possible that I could give all the appropriate explanations and he still will not listen until he experiences the results of his actions on his own. Afterall, cause and effect are still being learned and understood in the toddler years.
