I wrote earlier about some of my frustrations with the two boys that I am looking after; my own and a friend’s son. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get our rules to mesh a bit better. The unfortunate thing is that we can’t have a rule for my house and not hers because at 12 months he won’t understand that different situations have different rules.
So I broached the subject of throwing objects. I was positive and I just said that “Something we are working on is not throwing objects even balls.” I told her my strategy of taking the ball or whatever and stating what the object is for. I.E. “The ball is for rolling not for throwing. The maraca is for shaking not for throwing.” I am hoping that with all of us doing the same thing I will have the boys under a little bit of control and not have them hurt or my house broken.
I also gave her his first “drawing” before I broached anything. I know she was very pleased with it and I hope it softened the blow. I also hope that crouching it in positive language made it better. I am trying to make things easier for all of us and keep the boys safer.