You have enjoyed playing with your 1-year old son Marc. Together you have built big houses and castles with toy blocks. Then you pushed toy cars around these buildings, causing many of them to collapse. Marc has also taken various books from the shelf. Now the building blocks, books, toy cars and many more things are spread all over the floor and the furniture of the room. When it is time to clean up, you want your toddler to tidy up the room together with you. But Marc shows no interest; he is tired, angry and hungry and starts to throw toys around.
Do you know such situations? When do they happen? How do you react?
We would like to give you some suggestions for dealing with these situations. But first, here are some questions you may wish to consider/discuss concerning your initial reaction in such a situation.
„Talking with kids about tidying up” is based on the following references:
1 Heueck-Mauss, Doris. 2016. So rede ich richtig mit meinem Kind: Wie Worte wirken: Konflikte fair lösen: Stressfreier erziehen. Hannover: Humboldt, 74 ff.
Nolan, Virginia. 2016. «Die Macht der Sprache.» Das Schweizer Elternmagazin Fritz und Fränzi, Oktober, 58-64.
