Choices

So, the McNamaras, thanks to Maeve, are smack dab in the middle of the "terrible twos." As we try to wade our way through the mire, we have learned to very stealthily pick our battles with our daughter. We have also tried, with the encouragement of our day care provider, Pat, to sometimes turn the tables on Maeve and make her believe she is running the show when, in fact, she is merely falling into our parenthood trap without a clue. What I am referring to is giving her "choices." As Pat explained to us before the madness really began, sometimes it's good to present options to your toddler to make him or her feel as though they are making some decisions (or choices) on their own and navigating their way through life, when in reality, you, the parent, has only given them choices that you could live with. For example, laying out a couple of different outfits for the child to choose from. It empowers them to select the outfit but unbeknownst to them, either outfit is acceptable to you, the parent. This evening, before I arrived home from work, Chris instructed Maeve to hop into her booster seat so that he could prepare her dinner. She quickly demanded that he get her the tray which snaps onto the booster seat. It went something like, "Dada, give me that tray right now!" Chris very swiftly and firmly corrected Maeve by telling her that she won't be given anything she wants without her first asking nicely for it (which of course, includes the word "please"). She quickly corrected herself by demanding the tray for a second time while inserting somewhere in her command, an utterance of the word please. Chris, finding this to be sufficient, handed over the tray to which Maeve responded, "good choice, Dada."