Taming Toddlers

“A wailing baby is nothing compared with the defiant behavior and tantrums common among toddlers,” says the New York Times. That sure feels like the truth, at least now I’ve forgotten the agony of hearing a wailing baby (motherhood requires lots of amnesia). So I read with interest of Harvey Karp’s latest offering: taming toddlers. In his latest book, "The Happiest Toddler on the Block," he apparently calls them little “Neanderthals.” “…When they get upset, they go Jurassic on you,” he writes.

His recommendations? Instead of sweetly explaining to a wailing toddler that she can’t have a cookie until after dinner (over and over and over), you repeat back what the child has been saying in her own primitive terms: “You want. You want. You want cookie. You say, ‘Cookie, now. Cookie now.’ ” Supposedly this works. Toddlers calm down and then you can explain why no cookie now.

I’m skeptical of one-size-fits-all expertism, but, hey, this might be worth a try on my little Neanderthal. If I can do it without laughing.