A few weeks ago a friend and I took our 2yr olds to a bookstore for story time. All the other kids sat nicely while our children ran amok and didn't listen to a thing the lady said. I thought maybe we should talk about that, so we've been really focusing on listening lately. This morning I said we could go to the library story time if she could listen to the story and sit still. Ingrid, of course, being on a "big girl" kick, said she could. She could not.
We got there and she started running past all the other kids sitting there nicely to try to find the toys they usually have out. I grabbed her and said no, listen there's a guy playing a song, let's sing along! She gave me her mad look and ran away. I wrangled her to the back and told her once again she had to sit and listen or we would go home, she screamed in my face that she wanted to stay. *deep breath* okay.
She refused to sit down and anything I would say just got a scream instead. Moms are looking, kids are looking, it was embarrassing. When we used to go to story time it was for kids under 2, so there wasn't a huge expectation of sitting still. Half the kids were running around and would only stop to sing a song they recognized. I never felt bad about it. But lately it seems like every other kid her age can sit still for a story and a song. All these little 2yr olds sitting like little ladies and gentlemen, and here's my monster running around like she never gets play time!
Part of me could care less, I love having my spitfire kid and why should I care if she has the attention span for story time? She can sit for hours at home reading books, and she knows the words to multiple songs. It's not like she really needs anything from story time. So why do I care? Is it just because of the looks from other moms? And why are those bitches giving me looks anyway?? I'm sure their kids all have their moments...
Or do kids need to learn to sit still and listen? Is it one of those socialization things they should learn how to do? It's rude to not listen and to disrupt story time for others, but is she capable of understanding that? Am I just expecting too much from a 2yr old? Until I figure it out I'm just going to avoid story time for awhile. There's nothing to be gained from it and it just frustrates me and doesn't seem to be very fun for Ingrid.
A New Path
10 months ago
3 comments:
If it were my kid, I'd just wait a few months and try again. Ingrid has years of sitting and listening ahead of her!
She's probably just not ready for that yet. She's still really young to sit and listen to a whole story in a different environment. She is definitely not the exception. I think the weird ones are all those 2 year olds that sit still through story time :)
I think it depends on who is doing the story time too. When we used to go to our library story time Ben would sit and listen for almost the whole half hour :) She was a really good at keeping 2 year old's attentions... or... whatever. When we went to Borders that girl had no idea how to read to 2 year olds, and the kids that were mostly sitting were older. So whatever. I'm not worried about it, they'll get there. And until then, I'm avoiding it too. lol.
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