While raising children, parents need to wear different hats during the day. You need to be a singer, entertainer, dancer to calm your baby, multitasking jangler of different tasks at the same time. Believe me, you learn a lot!
But sometimes general approach just doesn’t work. And the advice you’ve received from your friends, also parents, may not help with your child. This is the time when you as a parent need to discover something new…
Imagination can be a great help in raising children. I know it helped me a lot! At the very beginning, it was really hard to put my daughter to sleep when she was a baby. Different techniques were used – from bouncing on a fit ball, singing and rocking in my hands, to using white noise machines like hair dryer, and vacuum cleaner or going outside.
I had to use my imagination often to find a way of putting my baby to sleep to keep her healthy and happy. It is also about experimenting, trying, observing, analyzing what works and not, and trying again.
I remember I was driving back home and was planning to make a stop at the grocery store. My toddler was sitting in her car booster at the back and was aware of the stop. When I arrived at the store, she fell asleep and I didn’t have a choice but to drive back.
I preferred to allow her to sleep if she needed to, considering how hard it was for me to put her to sleep. Once at home, I’ve left my car in the garage, turned on communicator to hear when she wakes up and came inside the house.
After some time, she woke up. When I’ve checked to take her inside the house, she was crying and unhappy. Why? Because we didn’t stop at the store! Oh, the reasons toddlers get unhappy…
What would you do in such a situation? Drive to the store again to satisfy your child? Ignore the cry and drag your unhappy child inside the house? What’s the best way to do in raising children?
Well, I had to turn on my imagination for the peaceful resolution of such a situation. I’ve got inside the car on the driver seat, made noises and pretended I’ve started the car and drove to the store. Then I was turning my wheel “driving” back home. It was a spontaneous idea I’ve never tried before. Whatever works, right? Doesn’t hurt to try, as it will not make the situation worse.
After my driving performance magic happened – my toddler stopped crying! Yay! Imagination helped me again! And I didn’t even have to go to the store – double win!
There are many creative approaches to raising children. Often, raising children requires an out of the box imagination in conjunction with doing what works for you and your family. The above example is one of the many ways I use imagination for parenting.
Did or do you have similar situations in your parenting life? What unusual approaches did you use while raising children to peacefully resolve some situations? Please share in the comments, other parents may thank you later for your advice.
We watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and honestly, it gives some great advice for calming down a toddler, and even parents. We use a lot of songs in our daily lives to help when a bad situation arises.
I think I’ve watched Daniel Tiger before. If it’s the same one I’m thinking about, it helps with different types of social emotional learning skills?
When I’m teaching, it takes a lot of in the moment decisions. I can’t imagine how many quick (and imaginative) decisions you make as a parent.
Ha! As a parent it’s non-stop, lol. But As a teacher, you’re making a lot of quick decisions as well. With sometimes 20 or more kiddos 😬. I appreciate all that teachers do.
There are so many many times that having an imaginative mind has helped me with my kids, grandkids, and at school. Teachers always have to have a backup plan half-formed in their heads. You never know when the internet will go out or there will be an unplanned event. I’ve taught in dark on days where we lost power (try feeding 400 kids in a lunchroom by flashlight–luckily the meal was cooked already).
Yikes, I can’t imagine. I work in a school as a therapist and recently we lost power for an extended amount of time. But thankfully, everyone handled it well and remained in their classrooms and continued teaching. Kudos to teachers. I appreciate you all!
Imagination is important in every aspect for learning and teaching.. great post..
Thank you 💛
This is such a sweet post, Tren. My spiritual mentor says how divine imagination is one of the most powerful tools there is! Seems like especially with toddlers. 🙂
Blessings to you.
Debbie
Hi Debbie, toddlers pushes out of comfort zone. Pushes out the creative side of us. Thanks for visiting 💛
This is great 🙌🏼