If you have children, you know very well, that although parenting is a true blessing, it’s not always just milk and honey – every day there are new and new challenges and we must come up with new solutions every time. I say to myself now that it will be easier with Iancu, because I have the experience with Ilona, but I know I only lie to myself – the problems will be different, he’s a boy, and although similar in origins, will show most likely to a different extent.
There was a time when Ilona was losing everything she had in her hand. She would wander toys everywhere and then she’d crying after them. We would buy new ones, but the story was the same. I already exhausted all the options in order to make her accountable for them, until I changed the approach. Because, like any girl, Ilona would try to copy me, and be as chic as she can, one day I got her her first – I know, it’s not a solution that can be found in the parenting books, but it helped me to reach my goal. “Mon amour, what you put, here, inside, it’s all yours and you have to take good care of it, not to lose it!”, I said then. It worked like magic. Within days I had a totally different Ilona, attentive and caring of her things, wearing her bag everywhere with her. The one with a kitty-cat from Bonpoint is nowadays her favorite, but she is equally responsible for any bag. And so I kill two birds with one stone: I satisfied her need to be stylish, but I also have solved the problem of misplaced things.
It was the same with all the hair accessories. She wouldn’t let me in any way to put her hair up, she would want it down and free the “maiden”, and I already tried all the methods for her hair to no longer get in her eyes while playing. Give a girl matching accessories and get rid of any nuisance! Said and done! Ilona has now a real collection of hair accessories – from clips to headbands and hair elastic with pets – she even opts to asks me in the morning to put her hair up.
I’m not a model parent and I do not want this because I don’t believe in it. I avoid giving advice (even with best friends) because I’m aware that what works for my children might fail miserably applied to others. But I think though that, with a “trick”, with a game, we can convince our little ones to listen to us and they seem to be doing it from their own initiative, like it’s their choice. And that seems to me the most important thing. What tricks do you use in order to make the little ones listen to you?
Ilona is wearing a Bonpoint outfit. The sweater, the skirt, the stocking, the bag, the hair accesory – you can find them all in the Bonpoint store.
Photo: Lasc Media
