Dear Parents and Grandparents of Toddlers, ,I must admit that I was a bit rusty on the parenting skills index when I became a Grammy 18 months ago. I had a relearn swaddling and somehow had forgotten that toddlers rarely play with toys.
Babies will look and hold and study toys mostly because they are still immobile and do whatever their parents say. But, toddlers, like those miracle 18 month-olds on my horizon, have emerging minds of their own and their goals are to do what their parents do.
Seriously, I should have known better! Even if my own parenting memories of toddlers were lost to sleep deprivation and exhaustion, I've been an Auntie (and a Great Auntie) to nieces and nephews and their children for more than 4 decades! I have an advanced degree in Literacy, Language and Learning and many, many years of elementary teaching experience. I've read Maria Montessori's ideas about children observing and their need for independence in a prepared environment.
So here is the point of this letter: Skip the toddler toys. Invest in a new set of pots and pans for you. Buy a new vacuum, mop and broom. Perhaps, buy yourself a new cell phone and laptop! Save the empty boxes for the toddlers. And, let your toddler play cooking, bang pots, sweep, mop, dust and do what they see you do every day.
Sincerely,
One Life-Long Learning Grammy
10 comments:
LOL!! This is so true! Some of my four children's favorite toys include boxes, tissue paper, remote controls, and kitchen utensils. Who needs toys with all that fun stuff?! :) Thanks for sharing your slice!
The box something comes in is always more exciting than what is inside. Love this post.
I was also going to suggest boxes! We forget that to toddlers everything is new! They invent all kinds of new uses for objects, not even realizing that they are being creative. What a delight to have toddlers around, and how exhausting, too.
So true! My daughter has been into coloring lately. We saved a couple of big boxes and she loves nothing more than to sit inside of it and color it like crazy. And sometimes color herself. :)
Such good advice. I visit my nieces apartment with a big overflowing toy box, and the two year old is entertaining himself with the broom.
YES! genius post and absolutely true!
How right you are! I have pulled a container of Duplos down from the attic. My grandson likes playing with toys that his mommy and uncle played with.
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Boxes, for sure! Boxes were some of my sons' favorite things to play with! ~JudyK
So true -- I wish I could go back and tell myself that when my kids were so little!
One small broom brings a lot of smiles. Great advice!
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