Toddlerhood is an intimidating phase of development for so many parents. What we usually think of when we hear the word "toddler" is tantrums and meltdowns galore. This can be so frustrating as parents and can honestly really get our blood boiling when our child is being beyond unreasonable and has seemed to have checked out completely. But as we talk about today, simply managing our expectations during this phase of development helps us as the adult not be so emotionally driven like our kids are at this point on the developmental continuum. Something else worth mentioning is that when our toddlers are having fits of frustration and maybe are even being explosive, we need to first check the basics: are they hungry? Tired? Lonely? Thirsty? Sick? Reflecting on how we feel and how short we can be with others when we ourselves are any of these things can really help us be empathetic; it's pretty unreasonable to ask that a small, underdeveloped brain show self control and regulation when suffering from these things when we as grown ups have a really hard time with this too!

This episode also covers some strategies to support you through the common battles, including potty training, mealtimes, and of course tantrums. With strategies to de-escalate situations, we can prevent challenging routines from becoming triggers that set kids off on an even more vicious cycle of pure emotion. As always, we talk about these concepts of warmth and gentleness and how they still hold true as being foundational even during these often difficult years. We can't overemphasize the role of early bonding and fostering that parent-child connection all throughout their life--and it's so true that children who are more closely bonded to their parents are far less likely to want to defy and far more likely to want to connect and preserve the bond.

Toddlerhood gets such a bad reputation but I love it so much! It is the most incredible thing to watch your little one learn so rapidly and develop so many new skills during this time. For all of the stereotypically "bad" things about raising toddlers, there are infinitely more wonderful, precious things to reap from this phase! This time really is so unique too in that you see even more of your child's personality blossom as they begin to develop more language skills to express what's going on up their in their busy brains.

We hope you love this one!