One more

February 15th, 2016
kids
When Lily wants something, she often wants more than I'm ok giving her. Maybe she wants me to sing forever and not put her down in her crib for the night, maybe she wants to keep playing and it's time to go, maybe she wants to keep eating chocolates; I find this comes up a lot. Something that's been useful in these cases is having a little routine around "one more":

A: more sing
B: [sings]
A: more
B: I'm going to do one more song, and then night-night, ok?
A: [sad]
B: One more?
A: yes
B: [sings]
A: more
B: We did one more song, and now it's time to go night-night.

She still asks for more at the end or protests some, but because she had the heads up she's not really expecting me to say yes, and doesn't get that upset when I tell her no.

We started doing this at maybe a year? When she could just say a few words but mostly just cried to indicate that things weren't to her satisfaction. At that point it looked more like:

B: [starts to put A down in the crib]
A: [cries]
B: [picks A back up]
A: [stops crying]
B: Would you like one more?
A: [cries a little]
B: [sings]
B: Time for night night
B: [puts A down again]
A: [cries a little]

Even though she wasn't at talking age yet, she could still learn the pattern around "one more". It communicated that we were nearly done, that we weren't going to have more of the thing if she cried a lot, and that it was time to adjust.

I've been pretty happy with how this has worked out, but n=1 so this may not generalize.

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

On Apologizing To Kids

Everyone is so weird about apologizing to children.

via Thing of Things August 25, 2025

Against the Teapot Hold in Contra Dancing

The teapot hold is the most dangerous common contra dancing figure, so I’ve been avoiding it. The teapot hold, sometimes called a "courtesy turn hold,” requires one dancer to connect with their hand behind their back. When I realized I could avoid put…

via Emma Azelborn August 25, 2025

Little Puppy

She's very little and she likes to do stuff with me. She also likes to bark around and run around and jump around. She also likes to go to places with me and that's all I have.

via Nora Wise's Blog Posts August 23, 2025

more     (via openring)