How to get your kids to leave their favorite objects at home

Jennifer is a smart, smart mom. Here's her secret for getting out the door relatively unburdened by her kids' "special" treasures:

As the mom of five kids age 11 and under, I have had a lot of experience dealing with little ones. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to get my family up, dressed, and ready to leave in the morning, whether it is to school or somewhere else. Many times, I have been hustling my family out the door and the 3 year-old (or even one of the slightly older ones) insists on taking some toy or other random object that I would rather leave at home. Sometimes the thing is a lightning rod for potential conflict (like candy) or dangerous (like a stick) or bulky (like a scooter) or messy (like makeup). Here's what I do:

1. The first step is to admire the object. I will ask to see it, and praise how interesting, or fun or cool it is. ("Wow! What a great stick! It is so smooth, and you can do so many things with it!")

2. Then, I personalize the object. I assign it a name and an age. Most things are babies; this works particularly well with girls (I have four). ("Stickie is so nice, but he is tired now from all the playing.")

3. Next, I give the reason that the object has to stay home. ("Stickie needs to take a nap now so you can play with him later.")

4. Last, I involve the child in taking care of the object so it can "rest" while we are gone. ("Let's put a blankie on Stickie so he isn't cold. OK, tuck him in now and give him a kiss. Say bye.")

Voila! No more arguing, or temper tantrums around taking the forbidden item in the car.

We're mostly past this stage in my house, but I'm giggling because I can just imagine my kids jumping in and elaborating on the story, thereby delaying us even more. "Actually, Mom, Stickie isn't tired. He needs to go outside so he can breathe and see the other trees. No, really. Sticks die when left indoors for too long. Besides, he gets scared when he's alone..."

Comments

[Sharon]

We have done something like this with our 2 1/2-year-old daughter. We ask her to "tell [the object] bye-bye" and tell her "it will wait for you. You'll see it when we get back." Saying goodbye to it seems to help a lot.

[Bextoronto]

Yeah, we've been doing this with our daughter (now 21 months old) for quite a while with her favorite stuffed bunny. Most times it works just fine. And once it was built into her routine 'It's time to put Bunny to bed and say bye-bye before we leave for daycare' I think just the routine itself was enough to keep her going. That was, until she learned to say 'NO!'. We have had some struggles since (but the parents are still winning)

[Robert]

Our variation on this trick with our son and his favorite stuffed animal is to let him know that "Beans needs to guard the house." Or "Beans' job is to guard the car."

[Amie Simmons]

ahhh. all i need to be a good parent is this post:) i feel prepared for my impending baby now. or at least a little more.

[Jack]

Our variation on this is that those stuffed dolls have to attend school at home while ou kids are at their school. My wife is assigned to be their "home-school teacher".

The kids even set up their bedrooms as little classrooms and line up the dolls with books to read, etc.