It Begins In The High Chair

Believe it or not a lot of training can be done in the high chair.

Lessons of self control abound here.

In our family, we like to use high chair time as a training time.

Here are some examples:

We don't put plastic under the baby's chair to catch the food they throw off...instead we teach them not to through their food on the floor.

We don't let them whine and  cry for their food.....instead we teach them simple signs like 'please' 'more' 'all done'

And with Josiah we have taken it a step further and chosen not to keep his bowl far away from him....but instead keep it in front of him, right on his tray and train him not to touch it.

Every time we have another baby we are again amazed at how young they understand things and how little we give them credit for. We also realize how much easier it is to curb bad habits while they are young. Catch it now and you will have less issues to deal with later.

Take self-control for example. How many times in life do you need self-control? And how much better is it to learn it earlier on in life. Babies can and will learn self-control.

Of course parenting is a process and you will not have a perfect baby overnight, and there will be issues that you will feel like you deal with over and over again. But the earlier you start to train the easier it will be later on. We know, we have experienced it, we have done it both ways, and found that one way works better than the other.

But everytime, I struggle with the 'how much does he really understand' conflict. And when I test the waters I realize it's always way more than I give them credit for.

Take the game pat-a-cake-pat-a-cake. Have you ever done that with your child? I think I have with all of ours and it takes no time at all for them to repeat the actions....even as early as 6 months...so why then do I think they are not capable of learning sign language? Is there a difference?

I think not!

So today look at your child in a different light. Figure out how much they really can understand and start your training there. And as your child grows...you will be glad you did!

Here is a glimpse of what Josiah does when he really wants to do something but knows that he shouldn't.

Sometimes he will crawl along the floor and see something he shouldn't have and shakes his head and crawls on. Of course he is still in training.....so he doesn't always resist the temptation.

But this morning he did well as you will see!