Friday, October 12, 2012

Sign language and Temper Tantrums

For those you know me you know I love sign language. I'm not fluent but could hold a basic conversation in sign. Before Landon was born, I decided to teach him basic sign starting from a young age. When he started crawling and getting into things, I taught him the word no and what it means. It took a couple of weeks before he finally understood what it meant. Now when I don't want him to do something, I just do the sign for no and he stops doing it. Landon can't do the sign for no yet but he shakes his head and that is his sign for no.

I work part-time from home and sometimes when I'm working Landon will pull himself up to my chair and start tugging on my clothes because he wants to sit on my lap. This can make work a little tricky. This morning I decided I would teach him the sign for "sit-down". In the past it has taken a week or two before Landon understood what a sign meant. He took him about 5 mins to figure out what I was signing to him. I would do the sign and force him to sit so he understood what the sign meant. After doing this a few times, he started sitting down when I did the sign.

Well, about half way through work he came up to my chair and start tugging on my shirt. So I did the sit down sign and he started shaking his head no. I did the sign again and he shook his head no again. This went on for about 5 mins. He decided that shaking his no wasn't enough, so he started screaming at me. I continued to tell him "No, sit down Landon." He then started to bang the chair with his hands and kicking the floor with his feet. I couldn't believe my not even one year old was throwing a temper tantrum. I let him go on about 10 mins before I picked him up, calmed him down, and put him down for a nap.

After his nap, I played with him for a few mins and then started work again. He came over to my chair and started tugging on my shirt again, I told him to sit down, he shook his no, and he started throwing another tempter tantrum (2 in one day, really). But this only lasted for about 2 mins before he sat down and played with his toys. I hoping he got the message that when I tell him to do something he needs to do it. Guess I will find out when I work again on Monday.

As Landon was throwing the fit, I thought back to my teenage years and  thought of all the temper tantrums that I threw to get what I wanted and my mom's voice came into my head and she was laughing and saying, "Payback Time."


                                                        Good Thing I Love this Little Punk