Huh. That's an interesting observation..

[hey mommy]

Sammy threw a piece of his banana on the floor. DH ordered Sammy to pick it up. After telling him a few times "Cias did it!" :giggle he ran off to find me. DH said "he listens as well as the older one"(IOW, not at all). I said "I think it was in your approach" and walked in to give it a try. Sammy refused to pick it up until I finally said the magic words...

"Pick up the banana and put it in the sink." He then bent down, picked it up and put it in the sink.

YES! "Pick it up" is too vague! He has to know what to do with it after he picks it up!

I noticed that y'day while trying to get him to pick up nuts he dropped. I told him to pick them up and he just sat there. I said "pick up the nuts and put them in the bowl" and he did it.

Awesome!!!!!

[melliethepooh]

:rockon

Kind of like with 'stop spitting/whining/whatever'...you've got to tell them what TO do, eh?
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[mommie]

I will have to remember that ! Genius!

[rjy9343]

Way to go!:clap

[J3K]

Giving directions on what TO do changed the way I parented my kids. Honestly. The "don't do that" or "pick up the toys" didn't cut it. Purposeful direction also saved a TON of mind-reading failures. I no longer got angry when they didn't do something I didn't ask... (make sense ? It did to me at the time..."they should've known" was a common theme until dh piped up , 'they don't read minds Baby..you have to TELL them."

:giggle

[hey mommy]

In our house, it's the other way around. DH thinks they should read minds, be grown-up and know what to do all the time. :sigh

I had to tell him to use a gentle voice and get down on S's level yesterday instead of towering over him and scaring him.