Parenting in the Trenches

The laundry is piled up to your ears, the floor around the high chair looks like you've up-ended the garbage can, and there is a foot-wide juice stain on the carpet in front of the television. Parenting a toddler can feel like you're in the middle of a warzone, and the enemy is 3 feet tall and armed with crayons and handfuls of spaghetti. Hard as it may be to ignore the rubble, the best way to understand the enemy is to live for a day in her shoes. A Day of Play

Chances are that in the whirlwind of raising a child, we sometimes lose sight of the 3-foot-tall perspective. But getting down in the sandbox and letting your child take the lead is the best way to understand what captures his interest. So for one day, cancel the playgroups, the errands, and the cleanup and spend the entire day at the level of your toddler.

The Toy Box

The first day we brought my son home, I looked around our adult apartment and thought: "We have no toys. What kind of parents have no toys?!"

Within a week we had plenty of toys to amuse a newborn, and by the age of two, my son's toys easily out weigh all of our belongings. We have toyboxes for big toys, small toys, blocks, Lego, you name it. And most of the toys sit idle.

First thing on the "Toddler Day Agenda": learn about toys. Open up the toybox and let Mr. T. go free. What is he interested in? Often there are toys that he forgot he had, or toys that were beyond him when he got them, but are perfect now.

And then there's the deadwood, toys that he simply won't play with. Make note of these toys so you can weed them out. If there are fewer, more interesting toys in the toybox, Mr. Toddler won't be so overwhelmed when he's looking for something to do.

Time to Eat

For many toddlers, meal time means a fight. My son refuses to eat green food, including green smarties. For some families with very picky eaters, meal time is dreadful, every meal, every time.

But on Toddler Day, we are avoiding battles to eat veggies. Pack a lunch of foods your toddler likes and have a picnic outside or on your living room floor (push the toy mess to one side).

Often kids will eat food on a picnic that they would never consider when strapped into a high chair. It's something about the freedom to run around with a cookie in your hand that opens up a world of culinary possibilities.

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