New Phase

We have reached a new phase in our house. At least as parents anyway. When we only had two kids, there wasn't that much of a difference. A little bit, but not much, since Harrison and Hazel are about three years apart in age.

Well, now that we have two more kids in our house, I've noticed all the ways I parent, and how it has to change for each child. It would anyway, since they are all different and respond differently to things, but...

We have the way we have to deal with our tweenager (that's what I call him, since he's a "tween"), then we have our child, then we have the toddler, and then we have the infant.

The infant, for me, is easiest right now. He just wants to be held and loved, fed, and taken care of. He likes to smile and laugh and coo, and he's content most of the time to just watch you if you're busy. As long as he can see you, he's a pretty content little guy.

The next easiest, most of the time, is the child. She is nine, and likes to be helpful, most of the time. She thinks it's the best thing ever to help play with and take care of her toddler brother, and has no qualms about holding her infant brother either. She's going to be a good mom some day. Probably a better one than I am. :) She responds well to rewards. If she behaves a certain way, does certain chores, helps out, etc, a reward like a movie matinee, or treat at the store, is worth the work.

The tweenager, is a pretty good kid most of the time. He has his moments, and there are definitely days/weeks, where you can tell he's trying to figure out how to deal with the elevated levels of hormones in his body, but most of the time, he's pretty easy to deal with, all things considered. Of course, there is the question everything, which can get old an frustrating, and he likes to tell me when I'm wrong...even when I'm not wrong, and there are definitely times when I just wonder about things and how to do better than I am, but, MOST of the time he is good about doing the chores he's assigned and getting along with his younger sister. With him, I have to constantly remind myself of what I was like when I was twelve, and how I thought about things, and what I dealt with emotionally. It helps.

The most patience using child right now is the toddler. He's into the terrible two's (which I've always felt was misnamed since all my kids started into it when they were about 12-18 months old. He is learning to talk which has definitely helped on the "what do you want/need" scale, but I just have to take a deep breath a lot of times, remember that our other kids went through the same phase and have turned out pretty well, and just try to patiently figure out why he is throwing a tantrum or screaming for no apparent reason.