Friday, January 7, 2011

Stuck in the Middle

The debate at home right now is what to do with our two-year old girl.  We feel like we should show more trust in her, do things that would make her feel more like a big girl, but we're not exactly sure how.  Our son is four and has his own room, a big boy bed, and the tortoise and fish.  He has pictures on his walls and a bookshelf full of books to read.  We could put her with our son, but he's done with naps and we wouldn't have a place for him to have quiet time.  Apart from our room, the only room left is the girls' room.  Our two-year old rarely gets to go into her room because the baby is always napping.  Right now, we can't have the baby nap in the master bedroom because the little boy we watch naps there.  Our little girl is literally stuck in the middle.  That worries us because she is so smart and we don't want to get into the habit of letting the exciting progress of our oldest or the neediness of our youngest overshadow the personality, talents, and needs of our girl in the middle.  We will soon potty train her and put her in a toddler bed.  When we finish watching the other little boy, we can have the baby nap in our room, and make the girls' room more like our son's room so that our toddler can feel more like a big girl.  I believe what has been said about labels.  The young tend to conform to the labels placed upon them.  I feel that it applies more poignantly when dealing with the labels parents place on their children.  My hope is that we can give her the right labels: "trusted," "big girl," "smart," "beautiful."  The last two are a piece of cake.  Our daughter is a bit restless, so the first two are going to be a bit of a leap of faith.  But our experience has been that kids love to rise to the challenge.

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