So the Little Man has been having trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I can totally sympathize with that as I suffer from the same problem. But on a school/work morning we’ve gotta get up.
And he fights it. He hides under the covers and turns away. And won’t come out and won’t get dressed. I’m at a low ebb, myself, so an argument inevitably ensues and he usually loses screen rights for some portion of the day.
And we wind up leaving late anyway. So definitely not a win for anyone.
Well, this morning I tried something different. When he turned away and huddled under the covers, instead of yelling, I just pulled him out and sat him on my lap. He’s getting tall, my first-grader-for-two-more-weeks, but he cuddled up and I sang him silly songs and we got him dressed.
It took time, time I didn’t really have to spare, but it FELT better. And he was more willing to TRY to cooperate for the other parts of the morning routine. He still goes in the opposite direction when I push, slows down more when I urge him to speed up, but I think I realized that it can be different. He’s got better levers. I just have to find a better approach.
Scientific American–The Self Driven Child
Sparkly Things 