From the category archives:

Surviving The Toddler Years

The Mommy Performance Review

 

EMPLOYEE NAME/POSITION:  Mommy; Assistant to the Departmental Head of Toddler Chaos, Maid, Chef, Social Events Coordinator, Laundress, Chair of the Arts & Crafts Committee, Educational Team Leader, Keeper of the Cookies & Crayons, Member of the Nap Oversight Committee, Toddler On-Demand Specialist 

SUPERVISOR/TITLE:  Mac; CEO of Mommy, Inc. & Departmental Head of Toddler Chaos

 

1. JOB KNOWLEDGE, SKILL, & ABILITIES: Has the basic knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform her work satisfactorily.

Mommy has the basic knowledge and skills necessary to perform her work satisfactorily. She doesn’t ruin laundry. She seldom burns the entire dinner. She can efficiently unclog the vacuum of 42 small toy parts. She has mastered diapering while I run through the house screaming like a banshee.

She’s shown remarkable growth this year. She can now hold me and simultaneously perform 25 other tasks. I’ve seen her effectively operate our home’s thermostat and perform advanced functions with the TV remote.

Her dishwasher loading and dusting skills could use improvement. Other areas for improvement noted below.

It’s commendable that when faced with a challenging situation she will seek assistance, albeit, it’s often from the Internet… or Daddy.

 

2. QUALITY OF WORK/PRODUCTIVITY: Work is sometimes inaccurate or incomplete; sometimes fails to meet departmental standards. Works slower than expected; work is sometimes of substandard consistency and timeliness

Mommy takes FOREVER to get me what I want. It’s becoming a serious problem. Her response time to my yelling “SEAT!” and pulling on my seat at the table can be as long as 32 seconds. The other day I had to pull the seat completely to the floor just to get her attention. She said she was trying to get the cookie crumbs out of the rug but I suspect that was merely an excuse to lie face down on the floor for half a minute.

Additionally, I’ve been waiting days for my favorite T-shirt and fleece to be laundered. Imagine my disappointment when she presented it to me and the T-shirt was wrinkled because once again, she folded the laundry in a hurried and sloppy manner.

Mommy really needs to hone her skills in this area. She and I can work on an action plan for the coming year.

 

3. RELIABILITY: Sometimes not dependable and conscientious in performing work; sometimes unwilling to accept responsibilities.

To her credit, Mommy, tries very valiantly to respond to my crying and other basic needs. Unfortunately, she has trouble staying on task or her response is inadequate. Often she will allow my continual demands for “Help,” “Read, Read, Read,” or “SIP!” to draw her attention away from dinner preparations, laundry, or other key household chores.

Additionally, the time she devotes to Twitter on a daily basis is cause for concern. I mean, this diaper isn’t just going to change itself.

Sometimes I’ve caught her glancing at a magazine when she should be scooping the cat boxes, organizing my baby mementos, or matching up my socks. I understand by law she’s entitled to a couple breaks a day, however, she already gets bathroom breaks and typically she gets 10 minutes for meals per day.

It’s obvious Mommy starts projects with good intentions but her follow through is disappointing. She should focus on developing her perseverance. I’m currently walking around with half a hair cut and 7 untrimmed toenails because she abandoned these tasks as soon as I started throwing a tantrum and thrashing about violently.

 

4. COMMUNICATION: Communications skills occasionally impair performance.

Mommy is always talking, yet she doesn’t seem to listen.

Now that I can talk, she seems terribly confused. Granted she understands when I’m thirsty or want a cookie; however, when I yank open the refrigerator door and start pointing, it often takes her no fewer than seven attempts to get my demands met. (I hate mustard lady, stop offering me mustard bottles!)

And when I ask for the “Phone” or the “mote” it’s like she doesn’t even hear me. I know she can hear me because if I say “Poop” she hurries up and runs for my potty seat.

Her selective hearing must be addressed. Communication is vital to her roles in this organization. I shouldn’t have to throw a fit every time I desire to run with a fork, play in the medicine cabinet, or spend half the day naked.

 

5. WORK RELATIONSHIPS: Attempts to take a positive approach in assisting others. However, sometimes has trouble getting along with other employees, supervisors, and the public.

Mommy is always running around saying how much she loves me and asking for hugs and kisses. Yet, sometimes she has trouble getting along with me AND Daddy. She gets so uptight when we run through the house screaming until 8:45 at night.

She really needs to relax a little bit. I will go to bed eventually.

 

Sometimes, when I find her weeping silently in a corner during an unscheduled break, I get the impression that she is overwhelmed or frustrated by her co-workers. This behavior is unacceptable in a position as prominent as Mommy’s. She really needs to embrace her co-workers and their diverse viewpoints. Mommy’s continued improvement in this area is expected and once she makes steps towards improving, I believe she will find her work much more rewarding.

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10. Items reappear out of place mere seconds after you’ve put them away. 9. In the dark, you sense an unwelcome presence in your room. 8. You frequently resist the urge to run screaming from your own home.  7. You’re never really alone. 6. You can’t escape the voices calling your name. 5. You could have sworn you just turned that light off...

 

10. Items reappear out of place mere seconds after you’ve put them away.

 

9. In the dark, you sense an unwelcome presence in your room.

 

8. You frequently resist the urge to run screaming from your own home.

 

7. You’re never really alone.

 

6. You can’t escape the voices calling your name.

 

5. You could have sworn you just turned that light off.

 

4. The TV has more power over your child than you do.

 

3. You’re often terrified by what you find under the bed.

 

2. A very small person keeps telling you what to do, and strangely, you keep listening.

 

1. You know that the only way you’ll get any peace is a hotel room clear across town.

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10 Facts About  Toddlers

 

Rejoice parents! You now have toddlers, those bundles of budding humanity. Constant whining has replaced that urgent baby cry. They mostly sleep through the night these days, but when they don’t it’s no longer because they need a good burping or a diaper change. Toddlers have needs and desires that, even when addressed directly and precisely to the letter of their demands, are all wrong you dumb cow.

 

1. If your baby is a thumb-sucker (read: self-soother) you’ll rejoice until you one day realize that you can take away the pacifier but the kid carries that thumb everywhere.

 

2. If your baby is a pacifier baby, you will wait too long to take it away and convincing Susie that the baby ducklings at the pond need all her pacis will elicit the same reaction from her that beating ponies with puppies would.

 

3. Handing a toddler a broken cookie is like handing her a tantrum grenade.

 

4. So his shoes are on the wrong feet. Deal with it. You have a bigger battle ahead over the sleeveless top and dirty training pants he insists on wearing to Caregiver and Me Music Class in February.

 

5. You’re all ready to go to that doctor’s appointment, right? Wrong. Junior took a pit stop in the splash and play fun room otherwise known as the hall bath. And look, your car keys don’t float!

 

6. Parents of toddlers are to mental health professionals what year-end bonuses are to salesmen.

 

7. Even if the restaurant does have highchairs and booster seats, resist the urge to dine out with your toddler. You’ve heard the phrase like oil and water? Like IHOP and toddlers.

 

8. Christ was tested in the desert by Satan. You will be tested in the grocery store by a preschooler. You will discover that you are not Christ.

 

9. Young children love to play in the bath unless they are actually dirty.

 

10. Because toddlers throw all their food on the floor, animal shelters are able to unload dogs on young families.

 

Best of luck!

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Bedtime Stalling is something every toddler should master by age two. If you use my personally-tested strategies, by the end of this post, you should be able to push your bedtime a full forty-five minutes. With a little practice, you’ll be eating midnight snacks, watching horrible skits on SNL and ordering Slankets off late night infomercials in no time.

 

LESSON ONE: MAKE CHANGING INTO YOUR PJS AS DIFFICULT AS POSSIBLE
Run around the house at full speed. If a parent catches you, go completely limp so that you weigh 1000 lbs. If mom or dad succeeds in getting your clothes off, do not let that deter you from making a quick getaway and running around fully naked.

 

LESSON TWO: A SUDDEN APPRECIATION FOR DINNER
This tactic is best carried out if you have a long established behavior of “not eating”. This way, when you show a sudden interest in nourishment at exactly the same time your parents start the bedtime process, they are genuinely torn between their desire to get you into bed and their fear that you might starve to death.

 

LESSON THREE: YOUR TEETH CAN NEVER BE TOO CLEAN
Brush your heart out. Ask for more toothpaste. Ask to use the Dora toothbrush and then change your mind and ask for the Thomas one. Run your brush under the water for an inordinate amount of time. Decide your teeth aren’t quite clean enough and start over. You get the idea.

 

LESSON FOUR: HIDE YOUR BLANKIE
Establish the need for as many security items as possible. I suggest a blankie, a stuffed animal and a sippy cup. About an hour before bedtime, hide these items around the house. Precious minutes will be awarded when your parents are forced to go on their nightly security item search, knowing full well there is no way you will go to bed without them.

 

bedtime-stalling2

 

LESSON FIVE: BOOK NEGOTIATION
When it comes to selecting books for bedtime stories, try standing frozen in front of your bookshelf, unable to make a decision. You can also attempt to renegotiate your allotted number of books. If your parent says you can have two, ask for three. If they say three, ask for four. The important thing is to never be satisfied. Lastly, pick the longest book possible or if you are feeling extra daring, pick the book with 100 “look and see” flaps. Those things take FOREVER.

 

LESSON SIX: ENGAGE & AMAZE
All day, your parents have been trying in vain to talk to you, to get you to smile for the camera, to count to ten, etc. but you have ignored them. Now is your time. Put on your most devoted smile. Conjure up every word in your vocabulary and try to start an actual conversation. Sing a song. Say “I love you”. Your goal is to make it as tough as possible for your parent to walk away.

 

LESSON SEVEN: THE LAST CHANCE HURRAH
If your parent picks you up to place you in your crib, your stalling minutes are numbered. You can try to make a break for it— arch your back, kick your legs, protest, etc. But the way I see it, you’ve got two options— lie down and accept the inevitable or scream their name as they walk out the door.

 

My suggestion is not to fight it. You’ve done excellent work and there’s always room for improvement tomorrow.

 

Sleep tight, class!

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Wondering how to potty train a boy? Even though your largely reluctant, borderline belligerent two year old is standing in his potty chair and peeing on your floor today, tomorrow (well in 7 days) he can be potty trained.

 

That’s right. How to potty train a boy.

 

Start to finish. Seven. Days.

 

I’m not saying it wasn’t so hard that I wanted to tie their naked little tails to the potty until they went give up; it was.  Totally.

 

But it wasn’t impossible and you too can be the proud owner of an, albeit reluctant, borderline belligerent, probably even slightly disgruntled, but pretty much all the way potty trained two (or three, or four?) year old boy if you do exactly as I say.

 

Added bonus; no one will get hurt.

 

How to potty train a boy

 

1.  Buy supplies.  Fancy potty chair…check.  Special, flushable,moist booty wiping towellettes…check.  Super fun reward for “making”…check.  Instructional materials in the form of Elmo potty books and DVDs…check.  One sexy pair of toddler sized drawers to get him in the mood… the only thing that worked for #3.

 

He honestly didn’t give a care about the potties or the books or even the rewards.  All he cared about was looking like an effing rock star in his big boy chonies (aka Mexican word for under shorts).

 

2.  Get over nudity.  Because chances are there will be a lot of it.  #3 spent most of his training time running around the house in the buff.  He liked to wear his big baller drawers, but once soiled, off they’d come leaving him to free ball it the rest of the day.  This technique actually made him more aware of the goings on in his junk, so he’d start to go and then grab it to make it stop, giving me ample time to grab him, and run his naked tail to one of the strategically located pee depots (we set up potties in various rooms to keep them within reach at all times).

 

3.  Bribery.  Some kids respond to the sticker charts and what not.  #1 did, #2 not so much, and #3 not at all.  Unless you count the dang Cheetos…

potty training a boy

Your choice on this one, but it could work, particularly at the beginning when you are just trying to coax the little baddie out of his diaper and onto the pot.  A little sit here, see what happens, don’t cry or kick Mommy in the face, and I’ll give you a sucker afterwards (even if you don’t actually produce anything).

 

4.  Get serious.  Mom, Dad, and every other human creature living in or making frequent trips to your potty party during the designated training period should be briefed on the get-kid-to-the-potty-quick procedures.  At Casa de Dummies, we devote one solid week to the training up of the kid.  We may have to alter our schedule to ensure that we are mostly just at home, but the mild inconvenience is totally worth it.  I haven’t changed crap pants in months, people.  MONTHS!  If that’s not incentive enough to take a week off and stay home then I don’t know what is.  Seriously, dragging it out over months is really not as effective.  The kid loses interest, you get sidetracked, and both of your wind up frustrated.  Potty training is just like every single other parenting issue ever; it’s all about consistency.  You can’t let him crap himself today and then expect him to remember that you don’t want him to crap himself tomorrow.  If you can’t devote time and effort to the battle, I say don’t start it until you can (or until your kid is about to head off to kindergarten, whichever comes first).

 

potty training a boy

 

5.  It’s all about the preparation.  Every cloth diapering mom will tell you that one of the benefits of putting your kid in them is ease of potty training.  It is true.  But, there is hope for those of you who didn’t: DON’T USE PULL-UPS!  Use undies…

 

I know, Pull-Ups are convenient and they prevent you from having to follow your kid around with a bottle of carpet cleaner.  I get it.  And, when we had to leave the house, we used them too.  But, I’m telling you, if you want to get on the fast track to potty trained bliss you will go straight from diapers to underwear (the absorbent padded kind are fine) and skip the Pull-Up middle man.  Let me explain why.

 

  1. Kids get sick of standing in a puddle of urine.  Even the most belligerent ones will figure out that standing in a puddle of urine at the park or the store (fingers crossed this doesn’t happen, but if it does it will be a teaching moment!) sucks, and standing in a puddle of urine at home ain’t all that fun either!
  2. Kids learn what the Pull-Up is for.  #3, evil mastermind that he is, learned this quickly.  He would pee in the Pull-Up every time I put one on him.  It was like his comfort zone because he knew I wouldn’t know that he peed them for a while and he wouldn’t care that he peed them ever.  They know Pull-Ups are for peeing.  Even the ones where they get those nasty micro beads all over their package so they “feel wet” aren’t deterrents to the most reluctant bunch.
  3. They are more expensive than diapers and like 95% less durable and absorbent.  Why would you want to pay more for something if it doesn’t suck less?

 

There you have it, friends.  The How to Potty Train Kids Who Pee Themselves and Like It Handbook.

 

Keep it close in case you need it!

 

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