Baffling Behavior.....

I just ran across this great article at Parenting.com discussing children's behavior and why they do the things they do. They aren't out to get us - that is reassuring!!! Sometimes I feel like my little guy knows which buttons to push and has it in for me :).

"So there I was," Johnson says, "bringing him back in, taking him out again -- which drove us both crazy!" Surely Eliot didn't want to spend the morning stuck in a doorway. In fact, after his mom finally got him out of the house, with tears streaming down his face, he began bouncing up and down in excitement only a block later."

Wow, that sounds familiar. My little guy will say "more, more" when there is no food left in his bowl, so I give him more and he pushes it away!! The article stresses that this happens because a child's feelings are in conflict with his needs, but he hasn't learned how to express either yet. Our job is to figure out what those feelings and needs really are and to help our kids voice them.

Check out the article, it may help alleviate some of your concerns or worries about why your child is acting a certain way and realize that it isn't anything personal :).