Well the skating party was a big success I think. Nobody got frostbitten, nobody got a puck in the face (although Donna Drummond came close thanks to her husband) or in the pills, and we put lots of beer and food out of its misery. Very fun stuff. Thanks a lot to everyone that came, the food was great, the company even better.

Now I have that out of the way I can get down to the business at hand.

Topic: 21 month old boys are “Difficult”.

Let’s discuss.

First of all they are desparate to be “helpful” in any way possible. Combine this with the attention span of, well, a 21 month old and you have the recipe for frustration on both sides. How about a page from my own notes on this?

Vallentyne’s Parenting Theorem #1
Anything similar to useful work that a parental unit might try to get done will be met with an equal and opposite “scattering” effect from the toddler. The greater force #1 becomes, the greater the opposing force #2 will be. No net work to the good can be produced in a system like this. In many cases a net decline in parenting energy is seen due to the residual byproducts of the reaction, namely; “tears”, “yelling”, “throwing of things”, and “futile raging against injustice by pounding of the cranium on the tile floor”.

Then we have the irrational behaviours. For instance:
– what the toddler ate yesterday without complaint has no bearing on today’s menu choice.
– just because the toddler is tired doesn’t mean that he/she will be receptive to a nap.

This fascinating study will continue for several years, I predict. I will keep you posted.