How soon is too soon is my question. Let's talk kids and teaching them right from wrong, yes and no, please and tank you, peepe, potty...I'm confused. I'm new to the parenting buisiness (my baby girl is almost 2). My wife and I very seldomely speak to our little one in baby talk; we opt to speak to her in full words. Also, we don't just giver her things that she points to. We make sure we say the name of the object that she wants and make sure we say it several times before we give such item too her. In between, we ask for her to try repeating.
Is this bad of us to not baby her? Does this make me a bad parent or a smart one? Don't get me wrong, I love playing with her. We have tickel fights, sock fights (we through socks at each other), we play at the park, we run chasing eachother...you get the picture. I'm a very typical over-protective father with a wife who is just as bad. We started teaching our little one to sign at 6 months (i. e. signs of come here (bending finger tips to palm of hand) became please, circular rubbing of tummy became hungry, tapping of the chin ment thirsty...just to name a few). She is now 20 months old and has a vocabulary of a 3 year old and the manners not typically seen in a child that age. She says please and thank you, says hello (verbally and with hand shake) as she enters a room, she is just about ready to leave the diaper (couple of mistakes here and there), she recognizes shapes, colors, and knows how to use a fork and spoon (and knows them by name).
However, I can go on and on praising her intellagence, but then there is the negativity we get from people (or as I like to call liberal hippies raising a whole new genration of slackers and crybabies). Example: When she was about 13-16 months old, we took a trip to the local Target to purchase a training potty. While there looking at all the different types, we were approuched by a woman and her son. She asked: "Looking for a training potty hu?" We replied yes and began a conversaton with her. She then asked if it would be easier to place the child near the potty to see if they will like it. I said good idea. I went for my daughter and she stopped me and said - "Excuse me, but don't you have an older child for the potty?" I said nope, it's for her. She damn near fainted. She had the gull to say to me and my wife, what the hell are you doing? She is a baby, who the hell are you to take her child hood away from her? You are wrong in what you are doing. Her boy was 26 months according to her (that makes him 2 years and 2 onths), and it pissed her off that my daughter at 16 months was getting a potty. I asked her if her boy was trainned yet. She said no, the potty was for him and she is only getting it to have i case he begins to show interest...
the other one is infant swim. We had a tragedy in the familiy in which a cuising ended up with sever brain damage due to a near drowning in a pool. We have a pool in our home and so we did what we felt was a responsible decicion. We signed up our daughter with a program called infant swim resource. This is basically a survival coarse teacing children as young as 6 months how to survive in water in case they fall in. She is now trained to know how to float on her back, rest, turn on her tummy to swim, and back again for resting - until she reaches steps or a safe place for her to pull her self out. In the event neither are available, she is has been taught to float until she is pulled out of the water. This is amazing (see for your self at infantswimresource.com). Some people that have seen her shirt at the grocery store (that states on the back-I can swim! Watch me how at ...) have given us comments like we are horrible for traumatizing our child, she's still a baby she does not now what she is doing - you'll make her affraid of water! What they don't know, is the confidence she has when we are all in the pool. She likes to be left alone and not held; also she will occasionally let go of the sides and float on her own away from the stairs and swim back.
Tell me poeple, are my wife and I as parents taking it to far or are we just teaching her to be a well mannered, well behaved child? How many of you can say that you have seen a child at ages 1 - teen years say please and thank you and actually say hello and good buy upon entering and leaving a room? I'd like to know what you think. Thanks.
Hello people. I am new to this whole blog craze...but let's get started. Starting July 1, 2008 - we all must have hands free devices for phone usage in our vehicles. Well, I ask of you the general public, is this really a safer alternative to not talking at all on the phone?
See, the way I see it, with or without the "bluetooth"; your consentration is on the conversation not on the task at hand - driving. Eventhough you are not physically holding a phone, your mind is not 100% on driving: you're laughing at a joke, having a heated discussion (i. e. with child, wife, husband, mom, dad, brother...), thinking about a paper you wrote or did not write, being asked where you left something, did you close your last deal...you get the picture.
See, I'm an applications engineer and my days consists of being pulled in many directions at all at once. I'm sure alot of you are the same way. However, we manage to get through the day and get our work done flawlessly and with a smile. There are alot of people that unfortunately cannot walk and chew gum at the same time...not good for the rest of us having to drive next to them while they call home to find out if little Timmy went poopies today. HELLO!!! Can't you wait til you get home in about a half hour?????
Since when did it become ok to convert the car into an office, fax room, library (you know who you are Mr. I'm reading Steven King while driving), or even a meeting room - really, 3-way calling while driving? What happened to the days of blasting your radio and just freaking singing along to a song, a song on a neighboring car, or simply just smelling the roses. If you read about me, you'll know I'm an afficionado of cigars. My longer drives (Fridays on that dreaded 210 East), consist of some John Coltrane, a nice cigar, and knowing that soon I'll be home. This is my way of letting go of the day or week. Work is work and it stays at work. When I leave the office, my company phone goes off; I'll check it every so often, and if it is really important, I'll call back. Otherwise...Sorry Charlie.
Let me ask you this; what happened to the days when clocking out for the day ment leaving work behind? that is a whole other issue I have with "Computers were ment to make lives easier...my foot! But that will be another blog. Let me know what you tink about this new law about "hands free".
