Ever make your baby do something like this?
Cheerleader baby.
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Then this might be for you. In my latest post over at GNM Parents, I wrote about how performance pressure is rearing its overlarge, self-important head — with Boobaby only 2!
We never pressure Boo to achieve (which, I suppose, is why she still calls every color "green"). And classes we took were all about fun and play. Expectations are rising, however:
"Things are changing. We’ve started taking Boo to an acrobatics class, which although age-appropriate for toddlers, really emphasizes skill development. Our daughter would be perfectly happy bouncing on the trampoline endlessly, but now she’s expected to do somersaults and bear walks and splits."
The entire post, "Prodding the Toddler", is up over at GNM Parents.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
So I guess the real question…is how is she dealing with it??
Good article. It’s hard to know when to push your kids to do things or not. We try to take our cue from our toddler, as well as incorporate a ton of praise for learning new things and getting things right. By the same token, we don’t focus heavily on correcting him when he gets colors, numbers or the like wrong; instead, we just move on to something else and continue having fun exploring new things. Came across this article from you on Dads.Alltop.com. Glad I did! -Jeremy @ Discovering Dad
We tend to provide challenges, without pushing. If he masters something, we give him something a bit more challenging to do — forex, when he started putting the 24 piece puzzle together on the *blank* side, we got him a 48 piece puzzle to play with. But we try have it be about him, and what he enjoys doing, rather than some pre-set notion of what he should be doing at a certain age.
There’s only one thing I “push” about, and that’s speaking properly. I have a very firm “no baby talk” rule for him. I don’t know why, but the baby talk annoys me to no end (it probably wouldn’t if he weren’t such a “good talker”…)
Good job, boo!!! (and dad!) Your ready for the threes!
I just typed out a whole freakin comment and accidentally hit reset instead of submit.
I’ll shorten.
I worry about the pressure my kids will face to achieve in the future. I really worry.
I know, me too. As if taking on some stress ourselves will spare the kids that stress or something!