Developmentally Appropriate

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Every age has things that are troublesome, but are also developmentally appropriate. Toddlers may bite their playmates or suck their thumb, teenage girls are emotional wrecks and five-year olds lie (you know where I am going with this). Catching him in a lie is a double-edge sword, too. If he lies and then he tells the truth, do you punish him for lieing or reward him for telling the truth or neither? We have talked to him about not telling the truth and I know he “gets it”, it’s not a matter of him not understanding and he doesn’t lie all the time about everything, but every once in a while, the truth will get twisted to suit his needs. For example, today I told him he could have a leftover birthday cupcake after he ate his lunch. I then went upstairs and put Colm down for his nap. Liam then came up to inform me that he had eaten all of his lunch. I was a little surprised since he had just told me he wasn’t hungry and not that much time had passed, but I had no reason not to believe him. So after Colm was in bed, I went downstairs and gave him a cupcake. He took a bite and then informed me that his lunch was in the trash. Obviously he wasn’t allowed to eat the remainder of his cupcake. Toddlers eventually stop sucking their thumbs and teenage girls eventually learn to live with less drama, let’s hope this passes, too.

Leave a Reply