Last week, I happened upon what I believe to be the most underutilized strategy in my toddler discipline playbook. Okay, so I don’t really have a toddler discipline playbook. If I did, though, this strategy would be listed as a go to method for addressing tricky toddler behavioral challenges.
I discovered it as I was trying to corral Dylan in the bathroom so that I could change his training pants. He was fooling around and trying to avoid going in the bathroom, and I was beginning to get frustrated. Earlier that day, I had made a commitment to myself that I would try harder not to speak harshly to Dylan. I took a deep breath and thought about what I could do to try and get Dylan to comply with my request to get into the bathroom.
Out of nowhere, I just started talking to him in a silly voice. I am not even sure what kind of voice it was, but it sure was silly. Perhaps it was a mock southern accent, or maybe I am remembering it wrong and it was a badly butchered British accent. It could have been something else entirely. Anyways, as soon as I started speaking in the silly voice, I had Dylan’s undivided attention. He started giggling, and when the silly – voiced mama asked him to go into the bathroom he did.
I continued to speak in the silly voice as I changed him, and he was very cooperative even though he was giggling. After our business was completed, I stopped talking in the silly voice but Dylan did not seem to notice. We went about the rest of our afternoon without incident. Since then, I am embarrassed to say that I have forgotten to use my silly voice (or any one of the many silly voices that I could do) when faced with challenging situations. I have not been speaking harshly very often, but I could make discipline more fun if I can just remember to jump right in and get silly.