Distraction Works!

All parents know how difficult it could be to be at a public place with children who want to explore everything within their line of vision, including those they are not allowed to. Even at home, explaining to children that certain things are yet prohibited from them could prove a little too difficult. Nevertheless, the best parental treatment to this is being proactive and prepared. For instance, you will find it handy to have a ‘bag of tricks’ in mind ready to give your child some needed distraction.

This ‘bag of tricks’ may contain any of the following:

• Keeping a special selection of toys hidden until you need them to distract busy little minds with. Keep a container full of interesting toys, such as play phones, a small magnetic draw board, stacking rings and farm animals, only to be showed once it gets a little too difficult to keep your child away from the basin.
• Reading a good picture storybook together, because sometimes, all a persistent toddler wants is some quiet time with mom. Besides, a good book has this magical ability to change the atmosphere in an instant.
• Tolerating mess as needed. You need to accept the fact that toddlers get easily fascinated by messy play, and that they need to marvel in it as much as any other activity they do for the first time. Hand your child an open bag of uncooked macaroni and several cups and containers of different sizes. You can then show how to scoop and place macaroni from one container to the next.
• Having tea parties. If you think you’ve run out of fun activities to have with your child, you may want to give those plastic tea sets a try. Children love playing pretend, and a tea party may just be what they’ve been waiting for.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Toddlers at this time are learning to assert their independence and develop interests on their own. Your task as a parent is to affirm their natural curiosity and to channel their interests to make sure they are safe and are interacting with the world around them in an appropriate way. Distraction is an excellent way to reinforce their need to explore while keeping them out of harm’s way at the same time.