this is food for thought thoughts if it were
you this is your host neogentrics it is four o
'clock in the morning as you can probably tell
from the intro i'm going to be doing something
a little bit different today i'm still going
to continue doing my dark truths reveal series
i feel like it's getting a lot of traction and
a lot of people who originally didn't care for
this information it's starting to look forward
to the next episode because they want to know
what other stories I've found because they don't
have the time to, you know, look it up. Well,
like I said in my last episode, I'm not going
to be doing it every single night because some
people want to listen to something different.
So tonight, based off of what you just heard,
I'm going to cover something a little bit different.
I'm going to go back to my skills that I was
covering before. I want to cover something because
I have a cousin and a couple of friends now that
have kids. So I figured let's go ahead and cover
that real quick and we'll move on into something
else. And then. you'll get the next dark truth
reveal episode within the next two days. So,
with that in mind, let's go ahead and cover toddlers
and young children. That's going to be the topic
for today. So, before I covered pregnancy and
babies, and I'm pretty sure it was about 20 or
30 episodes back, and I didn't go any further
than that. It's not that I didn't want to, it's
just that most people still had toddlers well
babies at that point and kind of weird to go
into toddlers and young children when most everybody
still has babies but seeing how it's been about
almost a year now since I started that series
I think it's time I started actually covering
that so we'll take a short break right here and
then we'll begin shortly after Right on. Let's
go ahead and move on into the toddlers and young
children's category, shall we? Now, after babyhood,
the next stage of development is known as the
toddler years. Now, generally speaking, this
is a period, it tends to start anywhere from
about 12 to 18 months of age. So almost about
a year after the baby is born, give or take.
And, you know, it will usually continue for a
couple of years. It's a period of development
characterized by the emergence of independence
of both personality and movement. That's the
word I'm looking for here. I mean, your baby
who's in the early days had no idea that you
were a separate person, okay? Will now be keen
to assert their independence in every way possible,
considering their mind isn't completely developed
at this point, right? Of course, as the name
toddler implies, they are now moving about freely,
crawling or walking, if they have started walking
at this point, which gives them extra freedom
to make independent decisions about what they
do and where they go, even if they have no idea.
During the toddler years, children start to develop
language. It begins to be possible to have a
conversation with them. And it's fair to say
that toddler years are delightful, if not challenging,
of a developmental stage. The toddler years are
full of laughter, both at and with your child,
and most of them many happy times for most normal,
decent parents. And they are also enormously
challenging in many, many different ways. However,
the assertion of independence and the frustration
of not being able to achieve as much as they
wanted often leads toddlers to challenging behaviors
that we know them as Now, the toddler years are
not called the terrible twos for nothing. And
almost every child will throw at least one tantrum
over the period. Now, keep in mind, you have
to understand the toddlers and their behaviors.
Otherwise, this doesn't help you and it actually
hurts you in the long run. And you don't want
to overbear your child. Now, keep in mind, I'm
not saying that... Punishing your children means
you have to beat the ever -living crap out of
them. No, that's something totally different.
Now, old school people have their way of disciplining
people, their children, and the new generation
has a way of disciplining their children that's
completely different. Now, if you're one of those
people who doesn't think disciplining your children
is a good thing, or you see disciplining your
children as just telling them no, well, to each
their own. But you've seen the different effects.
And in another podcast, I'll cover the difference
between being a forceful parent that says everything
versus a parent that actually does something.
But until I get to that, we're just going to
focus on this. Okay, so keeping in with the theme
of what I just said, like I said, understanding
toddlers and their behavior, the crucial issue
in managing behavioral issues is to develop an
understanding of your child and the reason for
their behavior. Now, as a general rule, okay,
children want parental attention and will do
whatever is necessary to get it. Okay, they're
self, excuse me, they're selfish. You know, including
throwing tantrums. It's important to understand
this and to avoid doing anything that may reinforce
unwanted behavior in your child. You know, in
other words, if you react to the tantrums with
full -on 100 % attention, then the tantrums will
continue because the child will see that it works.
On the other hand, you can ignore them completely
and carry on doing everything else. Then, you
know... it is anyways possible that your child
may decide that it's not worth throwing a tantrum
anymore once they see it doesn't work at all.
Now, this is why you may sometimes see brave
parents sitting calmly down on the pavement or
in the park while their child throws a tantrum
on the floor next to them. They're simply waiting
for the storm to pass, or waiting on the child
to rather give up, if you will, on the whole
thing. Now... I have more information I could
go into on understanding your young child or
toddler, but again, I'll hold off on that because
there's a whole other podcast I want to do on
managing toddler behavior and dealing with the
tantrums in general. But this is just a quick
overview is what I'm covering right now. Next
would be feeding toddlers. Apart from toddler
behavior, the other issue that seems to be a
perennial issue for parents of toddlers is feeding
them. Apparently, asserting independence means
declaring a dislike for a wide range of previous
acceptable foods and or ability to eat only pink,
orange, white, or some other type of food. You
know, as parents desperately ask themselves,
you know, questions like, will my child always
be a fussy eater? No. And is this really a phase?
And if so, will it ever pass? Yeah. I mean, it
just depends. Like I said before, I'll cover
each one of these in a little more detail a little
bit later. The only advice you really need to
survive the toddler years is that this, too,
is a phase. It will eventually pass, and you
will face new problems and challenges. I hate
to say it, but that's basically what parenting
is. It's kind of sad, but that's the whole premise
of it. All right, everybody. That's pretty much
it for this podcast. I know it's going to be
a little short compared to some of the others
that I've done over the last couple of months
up until the last year. But keep in mind, they're
not supposed to be extremely long. A lot of people
won't even sit here for that long if I give them
an hour to two hour lecture on how to handle
their children. As a matter of fact... most people
don't want to hear that start with because they
think everybody in their own mind is automatically
going to think that they're a genius or an expert
in whatever it is that they do okay no one's
ever going to stop and think hey maybe i don't
know how to do this i need help doesn't work
that way thus we call it ego okay and pride and
these are the two of the main emotions that basically
drive humanity to the brink of extinction in
the first place. And keeping this in mind real
quick, it's not only men that this falls short
on, it falls on women too, and it's pretty common
with them as well as it is with men. Most often
than not, arguments will start and men will sit
there and they'll argue it out for about maybe
5 or 10 minutes and then they'll get over it
and forget it ever happened and move on. On the
other hand, Women will tend to get upset about
something, hold on to it like a personal grudge,
and never let it go for the next years to come.
And then the next time they see that person,
either that feeling's going to come back or they're
going to try to take it out on them. This is
called emotional -based behavior. My next podcast,
I feel like it's a time... Yeah, I feel like
it's time I cover emotional behavior. Because
this is a topic that seems to be plaguing a lot
of people nowadays. When you let your emotions
take over and it guides your actions, it can
lead to a lot of distraught in the future. And
it also helps because it helps you learn how
to deal with people better and how to handle
your children. Anyway, that's not the topic of
today's podcast. Today's podcast was dealing
with your children and understanding how to handle
toddlers, basically. Now, if you want to know
more about it and want me to go more in details,
like dealing with the tantrums head on, or kind
of understand your child more, or how to parent
the difference between boys and girls, because
each one's different, hit me up on my Facebook,
Instagram, or Twitter. I'll be happy to give
you a hand anytime and, you know, give you an
episode based on what it is that you've asked.
Now, enjoy the rest of your day. Peace. This
is Neogentrix with Food for Thought, and this
is Thoughts If It Were You.