He literally wants me to sit and hold him and do nothing else. If I leave the room to get something to drink, or go get clothes out of the laundry, or for pete's sake, go to the bathroom, he right away start crying...wailing really, and follows me with arms out, crying "mama". If we are playing on the floor together and I have to get up to go answer my phone, he starts crying as soon as I stand up. I can't even iron in the same room as him b/c he wants me sitting holding him instead. He will stand in front of me holding my legs sobbing, until I pick him up or try to walk around him. What's the deal?
I stay home with him, so we are together all the time. He doesn't need MORE attention from me. It's not that he misses me and needs some one on one mama time. He gets that all day long.
I try to explain to him in short terms..."mama's busy. Mama's doing something right now. Mama can't hold you this second. Please stop crying. No whining. Talk like a big boy please." When all those pleas don't work, I will sit him in time-out to let him regain his composure, but even that usually just makes him cry more!!
Maybe he needs time away from me to learn that I can't be with him and hold him all the time? Why won't he play in his room with all his toys by himself? Even for 10 minutes?
Today, I had to sit him in his room just to get a break, and literally cried out of frustration. It makes me feel bad that I am putting him in time-out for wanting me to hold him, but it's more that he can't learn to be ten feet away from me!!
Advice? We are registering him THIS week for MDO for August. But other than that, what do I do??!!
These are the faces I see all day. Is this just him being almost two? Help!
Oh janey!!!! I know. I know. I know. Those faces are killing me in those pics! Cause I have those kids. I have no advice. When you get some, let me know :) I love you!
ReplyDeleteSo this might be a weird suggestion, but Carter went through a phase like this when we were packing and had a lot of change going on and this tactic worked. I took one day (maybe tomorrow) and was over the top involved in every single thing he wanted all day long. I prepared myself mentally the night before that I wasn't going to get one single item on my to do list done, or even started, but I hoped it would take care of itself in a few days. I almost went to the extreme of babying him and offering over and over for him to sit on my lap, have a hug, cuddle on the couch, etc... We even started (spur of the moment) getting "sugar" kisses all over his face, which just made him laugh! My one and only task for that day was to be a mommy cuddle monster. It turned out to be a really fun day and he eased up with the neediness within 24 hours! It still took a few days to get back to totally normal but it established the fact: Mommy is here if I need her. So seriously prepare yourself to get nothing productive done in that one day but you'll save yourself the frustration of several days of this. Give it a try and good luck!
ReplyDeleteOh last thing - whatever you do, don't give in to him wanting to sleep with you. That's a battlefield where no parent wants to be!
ReplyDelete