Tuesday, February 1, 2011

How-Tuesday: How to Get Your Kid to Leave the Park


We've all been there. It's time to leave the park and your kid doesn't want to go. Here's how to make it happen.

1. Give your child some warnings. "Jamie, we're going to leave in 5 minutes." "One more minute, Shannon, so do your last fun thing!" The actually timing of these warnings isn't as important as giving them. In fact, I am the laughingstock of my family for my warnings they have absolutely no relationship to real time.

2. Go over and let your child know it's time to leave. My secret weapon here, and in any other situation where I don't think my kid's going to want to go, is to make the next place sound more fun somehow. "Hey, let's go get in the car so we can go home and have some of those dino chicken nuggets you love!" "Go ahead and clean up quickly so we can get home in time to watch Phineas and Ferb!" The idea here is to get your kid thinking ahead, and looking forward to what's next.

3. And if all else fails, pick them up kicking and screaming. We've all been there.

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2 comments:

D said...

I've also found that having my toddlers say good bye (even if it's to the playground equipment) seems to help too. :)

Kate said...

Well I really could have used these reminders about an hour ago as I had to remove my two screaming children from Arctic Circle. And it was all about 3 minutes after the employee there said "You guys are such a nice mom and dad!" haha.