Understanding Your Toddler

Understanding your toddler’s personality and temperament is a very important part of parenting. Understanding your toddler will help you communicate with him or her better and make your time spent together more enjoyable. One of the most important things to understanding your toddler is to just remember that he or she is a human, but at the same time, is only a child. They have feelings just like the rest of us. They are growing and changing everyday. Toddlers sometimes like to talk big, and can even get quite cocky at times. We must understand they are just learning the most basic things about life and trying to discover who they are.

The best way to get to know your children better is to talk to them more. Instead of letting the chatter go in one ear and out the other, actually listen to what they are saying. Ask them questions; find out what they are interested in, what they are afraid of, what they are worried about. Really knowing your child’s personality will help you to understand their actions better and help you give them the quality parenting they need.

Toddlers do get scared to talk about things sometimes just like adults do. By knowing your child’s personality and taking the time to really dig and find out what’s going on in their heads, you will develop a much stronger bond with your child. For example, a couple of weeks ago I decided to get my 4 year old a bicycle but when I told him we were going to buy one, he freaked out, screaming that he didn’t want a stupid bike. He threw himself on the ground throwing an absolute fit. I couldn’t understand why he was so angry and was tempted tell him forget it and send it to his room. After thinking about it for a minute, I thought about how my son is so cautious of everything. On the playground and swings he is never a dare-devil and always plays it slow and safe. This made me realize that maybe he was just scared or embarrassed that he didn’t know how to ride a bike.

Of course, he wouldn’t admit that he was scared. I reassured him that I was going to teach him how to ride. I told him we would buy a helmet and he didn’t have anything to be scared of. He asked me if he could get shoulder and knee pads too and I told him yes. After that he was excited to go get a new bike. He even got a bit cocky, insisting that he already knew how to ride a bike!

The more I talk to my toddler and really pay attention to what he is saying and what it going on his life, the better our conversations get. Our children look to us for help, but don’t always know how to ask for it. I am not saying to baby and spoil your kids. Just don’t be too quick to pass every tantrum off as them being “bad”. Be their best friend and their parent at the same time.