Before Mac was born, we purposely didn’t find out whether she was a girl or a boy. I love surprises and Andrew was nice enough to go along for the ride. I found it interesting how annoyed people got by the fact that we didn’t find out. I kept hearing complaints about how that made it soooo hard for them to shop for the baby because how would they know whether to buy pink stuff or blue stuff. Of course once Mac was born, we were given plenty of girly, frilly things for her to wear, but we continued to do most of our shopping from the “boys” section. Read on to find out why we don’t limit her to only girls clothing.

Every once in a while, I am faced with a toddler who is struggling with something like putting their pants on. They sit on the bathroom floor crying and getting mad. And sometimes, I don’t do anything to help them. Okay, I do something to help them, but it isn’t putting their pants on for them. That is because for some toddlers, their own worst enemy is themselves. They are perfectly capable of putting their pants on. I have in fact seen them do it before. But at this point in time they are in a mood and when faced with a small speed bump, fall to pieces instead of putting on their own pants.

But as they sit on the floor and yell for help, I tell them that by encouraging them, I am helping them. Because in the long run, self-help skills are a lot more important than me putting their pants on them this one time. In fact, Montessori is all about independence from an early age. But how do you encourage a toddler? Here are four ways I encourage a toddler without just doing everything for them.

I’ve always been told I’m stubborn. From the time I was a child, it was my way or the highway. But then I had a toddler who was just like me and I realized I didn’t have a clue what stubborn was until I had to go up against her. Now after working in a toddler room, I’ve dealt with stubborn toddlers before and I have some tricks up my sleeve. So here are 3 different ways I deal with a stubborn toddler.