Parenting is a lot of fun and a lot of work. And while most of the work is routine, the truly difficult times are when a parent has to be creative to solve this or that problem. Teaching the kid a new trick or explaining a new concept – these are the tough ones, not all the cooking, feeding, and cleaning.<\/p>\n
Olga and I have come to one of those parenting deadends, when we really don’t know what to do. With Maxim’s new transportation skills like crawling and walking, he is getting very mobile. He can reach places he never could and he can find things he never should. Some of this things can be moved higher and further. Others can’t.<\/p>\n
So, the time came to teach him places that he can’t go and things he can’t touch. Not even that yet. I am going to far. Limitations. That is what we need to teach him. The idea is that either father or mother may not approve doing certain things and he should understand that he should do them.<\/p>\n
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At first we tried explaining, but that failed pretty fast. He is way too young to listen and understand explanations yet. That will come later.<\/p>\n
For his age, all we could come up were some “serious” faces and voices saying “No”, “Don’t”, “Stop” or something like that. We tried that. I bet you won’t even guess how he reacted. No, he didn’t stop doing what he was. And no, he didn’t get scared. Not even angry. He started laughing. And I mean really laughing hard. One of his best laughs ever.<\/p>\n
I’m telling you, in situation like this, you just can’t make long faces and stay serious. You burst into laughter in about 2 seconds after him.<\/p>\n
Next time, Maxim was reaching for something he shouldn’t, we told him “No” and even slightly slapped his hand. Laughing again. He thought it was the funniest game we ever played with him.<\/p>\n
While all this is terribly entertaining, the question is still open:<\/p>\n