2. Holding a sleeping baby is a beautiful balm for loneliness.
3. If you touch really hot chicken nuggets too many times, your fingers will eventually lose all sense of heat. Therefore, ask the kids if their lunch is actually warm enough before serving it to them.
4. It is much easier to keep children happy if you simply have to entertain them. When they are required to actually work (such as do school), the task becomes more difficult.
5. If you choose to give the child two options, make the one you want them to pick highly more desirable than the other. Example: You can either clean up your toys, OR I can pick them up and throw them in the garbage can to be taken to the dump and rot away into nothing.
6. Children have a very innocent and charming way of viewing life. Example: Your birthday is on Friday; therefore, you get the day off, right?
7. When picking children up from school, bring food. It helps appease them immediately.
8. Watching movies from your own childhood helps the de-stressing immensely.
9. You're never too old to re-learn your elementary lessons. Example: I am still baffled by diagramming sentences, although it is becoming clearer since I am attempting to teach them to a child.
10. Getting up earlier may seem like a drag at first; however, once you are up and running, you will feel a lot better.
11. It is really easy to spend a lot of money in the movie department.
12. The hand-made gifts and drawings from children close to your heart brighten your day considerably. When received, make sure to hang them prominently so that when you're feeling down, you can look at them and smile.
13. Buy a dry-erase calendar. It's very useful for a busy and fluctuating schedule.
14. Having access to a microwave is almost indispensable.
15. You can do anything you put your mind to, even if you don't think you can.
16. If you act like the schoolwork is way tougher than it actually is, most kids will buy in to the bluff and laugh off what you think is "hard." Trust me, it works! "Don't freak out! Are you sure you can handle this? It looks really hard." "Of course, I can." Generally accompanied with a look of shock and disbelief that you think this is "hard."
17. It is amazing how quickly a clean room becomes messy.
18. Buckets for toys are amazing inventions. As are shelves upon which to place the buckets.
19. Listening to music can be very relaxing. It also makes housework more endurable.
20. Silly Bands do have a purpose! They can be used to keep kitchen cupboard doors closed.
21. Every family faces its own problems. Each parent chooses their own battles. If you become a nanny, it's best to figure out which battles the parents fight, and follow their lead. It helps a lot when you are all working together.
22. Setting a budget may seem daunting, but it is a highly useful and effective tool. I highly recommend it.
For #1, there's a secret trick: grab the kid's *wrist.* That way they can't flail around with the dangerous object, and if you grasp their wrist tightly, their grip will loosen while you reach in with the other hand and take the knife or what-have-you.
ReplyDeleteIt also helps to be completely calm so the child doesn't freak out while holding a knife. I usually just say, "Is that for me? Thank you!" while grabbing the wrist with one hand and the knife with the other. My son now always offers me knives right away if he sees them, because they are "for Mama." He never gets punished after giving up something dangerous, because I don't want to teach him to run from me the second he has an object like that. Instead I just give a big hug and say "sharp, dangerous, let's play with a toy that's for baby" and he gets that okay. Sometimes there's a fuss, but as long as I don't freak out or start to chase him, he usually doesn't try to struggle or run away.