Frustration

Jason has a very peculiar way of teaching Maggie how to deal with her frustration when she's fallen down, bumped her head, stubbed her toe or otherwise injured herself in any manner of ways. He grabs the crying baby up, then strikes the offending coffee table, toy box, or similar inanimate object and says, "BAD coffee table! Hurt baby!"

Now, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. In some ways I think it's good for her to have a way to voice her frustration that isn't continued crying, screaming and carrying on - and a way that very directly states what she is upset at. On the other hand, what do we do when she says "Bad Lily," and hits a playmate. We're going to wish we had never gone in this direction.

But it may be too late to debate this particular form of child rearing, today she showed me once again what a quick study she is. Her potty chair conveniently turns into a step stool up to the bathroom sink and after watching her older cousin use the step stool to wash his hands all weekend, that is ALL she wants to use it for. So today we went in there to "go potty", and as she tried to climb on top of the step stool she tripped and slid off, face planting into the towel cabinet. She wasn't hurt, but of course she was unhappy, "BAD POTTY!" she yelled, and slapped that potty chair as hard as she could.