Triple The Dad

Parents of all stripes, but new parents especially, are prone to worry. And why not? The early months of parenting are unlike anything you've encountered before. You are bone tired and lost at sea, having never been too sea before and without any way of knowing where you are, or even if you are on Earth. Many parents react to this situation by promptly taking out an auger and drilling a hole right through the bottom of their boat. The question is - right after "hey, where did they get that auger?" - why? Why do parents make it harder than it has to be. For one thing, if your kid does it, its probably normal. Like 99.9% probably normal. You see parents in advice columns and busily pounding away questions at Google like... My kid does X, is it normal? In fact, the first five Google suggestions for "my kid does..." are: 1) doesn't want to go to college 2) doesn't sleep 3) doesn't listen 4) doesn't play sports 5) doesn't eat ...

So last week I started in on the first 4 of the 8 common mistakes parents make.  As promised I’m back with the final four.  If you want background, check out last week’s story .  Otherwise, let’s get right to it: 5) Overscheduling your child.   I’m already seeing this creep in.  Honestly, I can see how parents quickly fall into this trap and not only aren’t sure how to extricate themselves from it, but don’t even realize they are stuck in it.  It starts with a pool membership, then a visit to a bounce house place that everyone agrees was enjoyable.  And then of course you want a trip to the zoo.  And a museum is a must.  And vacation, you just have to go to the beach – the kids need to see the sea.  And then there is music.  Music is important; everyone agrees.  But isn’t that a lot of seated activities?  We really need more active activities.  What about soccer?  Suddenly, an entire summer comes and...

At 18 months my triplets are a little shy of the three-to-five year age covered in this article .  But I read with interest.  It was nice, for instance, to find out that in a mere 18 or so months we will enter “among the most active and frustrating in terms of parenting.”  Yeah! Anyway, it never hurts to take a look at what we might be doing now that will hurt us 18 months from now.  At the very least I can discern what future behaviour I might want to avoid.  Consider this a midterm review.  The list is somewhat long and I want to take the time to evaluate my performance and provide advice, so I’m breaking down into two parts.  The first four I’m putting up today, with the last four going up next Thursday. Without further ado: 1) Don’t stray too much from routine.   I’ve blogged about this a little in the past and there are no problems here.  While it might be different, or more “active and frustrating” 18 months from n...