My daughter. 100% my daughter is the boss of me. Whether its changing clothes on one of her baby dolls or being dragged to her room to carry ALL of her stuffed animals to a different corner, she makes the rules. Well not all the rules. We still have a certain line where she knows when theres something she shouldn't be doing and I still have to say "no" once in awhile. It cracks me up how feisty my 16 month old is. Shes not afraid to tell me when she doesn't like something and neither is she afraid to stare me straight in the eyes and let me know she's disappointed in me not letting her throw Elmo in the toilet again.
Now I feel most parents go through this. But I am a sucker for a smile and a hug from my kid. Like to the point she could of just took her completely full cup of juice and poor it on my carpet and I'd be completely okay with it (which let me tell you this, do not give your kid a cup they can open with anything red in it). Now does that make me a weak parent? Does that make me not the disciplinary parent? No not at all. You 100% should be a sucker for your kid. But when they're young you can't concentrate on the small stuff. Messes will happen, broken plates will happen, stains will happen, finding food everywhere will happen, crying and yelling will happen and most of all a lot of cleaning will happen. That is all apart of growing up. And never would I ever be frustrated in a situation with her if she was acting out, you maintain your cool and I promise those moments go a lot smoother. But heres where I think the most important part about cleaning up messes comes in. Have your child help you clean up the mess. Make a game out of it, make it fun. The day I spent 2 hours picking up rice out of my carpet (before my vacuum arrived) is still one of my favorite learning moments with Ella. I showed her where to put the rice after she picked it up and she did it. We did it together. At one point all the cleaning went out the door when she threw some at me, but eventually we got on task. And it was great. After breakfast, lunch or dinner we play clean up. She gets her own napkin and wipes up the table she used and its adorable. (Not gonna lie, sometimes I sit back and let her do most of the wiping up).
I let my kid dictate what we do because I want to learn from her, I want to see what she likes, no matter how many times we change activities. When its time to play I might decide the place where we go but she decides what we do there. And its so awesome seeing where her mind takes her.
