How Do You Tell The Older Kids Not To Do Something, But The Younger Ones Do IT?

[melilley]

I have
2-16 mo. olds
2-2 yo.
1-3 yo.

How do you tell the 2 year olds not to do something, but then the 1 year olds do what you are telling the 2 yo. not to do, so then the 2 yo. do what you told them not to do again because the one year olds are doing it?

For instance, today the 2 year old and 3 yo. were running in the hallway. I told them that they were running and can get hurt so they may hop or gallop, etc... The 3 yo. stopped running and the 2 year old started hopping. Well then the 1 year olds saw the 2 and 3 year old running so they started to run then the 2 yo. started running again. This same 2 yo will even look at me and smile when he is doing something he knows not to do so I know he understands (he's my tornado child).

I know the 2 year olds understand, because the one will stop running and hop if I say something or give him the "look" and the other 2 yo will stop too, but if the 1 yo are doing it they think "well I can too".

I know I have to be there to model or "help" the 1 year olds walk, but many times I'm in the middle of something and can't do that.

Developmentally the 1 yo. don't really understand what I tell the 2 yo so it's a vicious cycle...

[Luna]

I tell them Wee One is little and he is still trying to learn this rule. We can help him by...not running or whatever it is.

[Heidi]

How about:

Look at 2 year old and say "DCB, could you please help Little dck remember that running isn't ok? Show him how to hop! Thank you! You are a great helper!

Running again..."oh, oh, I see running feet. I need my big kids (name, name, name) to help me show little dck how we walk".

[melilley]

How about:

Look at 2 year old and say "DCB, could you please help Little dck remember that running isn't ok? Show him how to hop! Thank you! You are a great helper!

Running again..."oh, oh, I see running feet. I need my big kids (name, name, name) to help me show little dck how we walk".

I'll have to do this! The one year olds just started walking in the last couple of months and have found their running feet...

[spinnymarie]

Yep - 'babies' are still learning the rules that everyone else already knows how to follow, and I remind them often (the big ones).