sj, ltc is three, right? You may appreciate the SECOND letter in this column, and feel comforted by this piece of the answer:
For the life of me, I can't understand why "the terrible twos" is a widely recognized phenomenon, but you don't hear much about three outside of child development books, mommy blogs, and chats with parents. Especially considering that 3 is SO MUCH WORSE than 2. Three is the Donald Trump to 2's George W. Bush; both of them are hell, but one of them is certainly cuddlier.
There's nothing that can be done to totally change Alice's behavior, because she is 3, and 3-year olds are absolutely horrible a good percentage of the time.
Jesse, she'll be 4 in a month. My favorite is Colbert's saying that anyone who says terrible 2s has never met a 3 year old. 1,2,3 Magic seems to be more about retraining the parents rather than the kid which is probably what's needed.
I did use 123, and liked it a lot. It really helps when all authority figures are on the same page. It was popular when the boys were that age so his daycare workers also used it when I told them I did. Consistency is a good thing.
And yes, it is totally parent training, just like dog training is owner training. I found it very helpful.
I vaguely remember 1,2,3,Magic but I don't think we ever used it as written. One tip that stuck with me from that age is to pick a number and count DOWN from it - that way you can't talk yourself into adding more chances.
So really it should be 3,2,1 Magic??
This may be a new edition, but it definitely has you counting up to 3 with very little explanation that would allow for negotiations.
Yeah, the tip was from another parent, not the book.
Okay, I not only made appointments with 2 different doctors for minor stuff that won't go away without medical assistance (in the form of sweet sweet meds), I have gone to both appointments and picked up the sweet sweet meds. Self-care victory! Now I really want Pad Thai, and I'm eyeing up DoorDash since Tim has class tonight.
You deserve the Pad Thai for sure.
