How to Be a Better Mom to Your Toddler
Motherhood is not an easy endeavor and being a mother to a toddler can be especially challenging. Toddlers are developing very quickly into little people and everything is moving in an erratic way which can make you feel frustrated. Don’t lose hope, here’s some help! In order to be a better parent to your child, you should follow our simple guidelines.
Feed your toddler accordingly
Toddlers have very special nutritional needs – they still need more fats in their diet than older kids, but they need to consume less calories. A toddler should consume 900 to 1300 calories a day, including three full meals and two healthy snacks. If you’re still breastfeeding your toddler or giving them formula such as Enfagrow stage 3, you should consider this a snack, not a meal. Keep in mind that kids around this age are often very weird in their eating patterns – they may eat a lot for lunch and refuse food until tomorrow morning. It’s fine to respect their choices to a certain point, however be careful they don’t turn this into a habit when they grow up.
Keep them near while you do chores
Toddlerhood is a perfect age to introduce lifelong habits to your kids. One of the easiest ways to teach your kid how to help you around the house when they grow bigger is for them to watch you do the work when they’re smaller. It would be great if they could also join in – they can pick up their toys and put them in their designated box and they can put their plate into the sink after finishing their meal. Normalizing chores when the kids are quite small will help them in their adulthood and it will certainly help you when they become teens.
Don’t compare your child with others
People are prone to comparing their accomplishments to other people’s and even though our children are what we’re most proud of we should keep them away from the ‘comparison game’. Brenda’s kid may be taller and Jess’s toddler may already know how to read but this doesn’t make your kid any less special. Another thing you should avoid is giving labels to your child such as ‘picky eater’,’wild child’, and so on. There’s some research that supports that kids often get trapped in the labels assigned to them which would stunt their individual development.
Let your toddler learn from their mistakes
While playing with your kid it’s so easy to get frustrated with their constant stumbling around. Let them make mistakes in their play! One of the best ways of learning is learning by your own mistakes. If you’re there to fix every single one of their errors the possibility is that you may enforce bad habits in your kid. They may develop a fear of failure and performance anxiety in their adulthood which can be detrimental. The only way to foster their independence is to encourage it and there’s no better way to do so than to let them make inconsequential mistakes.
Let others help you
As mothers we often feel as if we have to do everything on our own when it comes to our child’s needs. After all – mothers know best! Even if the latter may be true, letting your dearest friends and family members participate in your kid’s life may be very helpful to your overall well-being. Don’t let yourself burn out. You can’t be your toddler’s supermom if you are so tired you can’t lift a cup of coffee to your lips. Take a breather once in a while, let someone else babysit and do something for yourself. Even your baby will thank you when you come home energized and full of life!
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