0:41 - Look for online play groups
1:22 - Putting her into preschool
2:05 - reading books about self-confidence
2:29 - another type of clinginess that does happen
2:58 - asking them and telling them, "You have to say hello and greet people."
Hi everybody. Harper Jones with Bow-Tiger and you're watching Saturdays with Harper. I wanted to ask you guys out there if you've ever experienced the clingy toddler. I definitely experienced this with my daughter and although at times, I thought it was really nice that she always wanted me around, at the same time, sometimes I needed my own space. And I also started to realized that it was really, really important for her to be able to be independent and do things on her own and not always need mommy around. So I had to start to come up with some ideas on how I made her or could create a more social atmosphere for her.
Play groups. You can look online for playgroups in your area. This is a great way to get the social interaction that your children need. And it's also within these playgroups a lot of the time, it's these little team building exercises, where all of these toddlers get to play, but then they have a moment, or some time, where they all have to work together. And this will start to allow your child to start to engage with other kids in kind of a fun atmosphere. They think it's fun. It's not threatening to them at all. And it will really, really help them as they grow older and have to go to school and things like that.
Now another thing that I did, I started off with the social gatherings of other toddlers and moms. And then I went on to putting her into preschool. I did put her into preschool early because I wanted her to have one, the structure of kind of understanding she was in school and following rules, and then again, I wanted her to be able to work with other children and be confident around other children and sort of happy in that atmosphere. I didn't want her to be scared when she went to school. I didn't want her to feel that she needed mommy there. So I actually did put her in preschool early, and it was only like a half-day, 9 to 12 kind of thing. But I think that really, really helped with her self-confidence throughout going through preschool.
So another thing that I do, I still do with her and I did do last year as well is reading books about self-confidence, about working with groups, about having friends and kind of allowing them to see these pictures in the books. And allowing them to read these stories about friends working together and they see other children in the book, that will sort of ease any angst that they have about being around other children, etc.
Now there's another type of clinginess that does happen and it has nothing to do with having to go be around other children. It's around adults. And a lot of the times, children will get very shy, very nervous around other adults. And I will say with this, this is something that just kind of comes with...as they age, they'll get better at that. I try not to really egg it on at all. I don't allow my daughter to be super shy in front of people. Just asking them and telling them, "You have to say hello and greet people." And please and thank you, and using their words and their manners. Just letting them know that that's something that they need to do while they're speaking to people or if we have guests over or anything like that. As they kind of get accustomed doing that kind of thing, it makes it almost easier for them to not be so shy around your guests or your friends, etc.
So go ahead and try a couple of those things and I hope that they work for you. And, of course, guys, if you are watching this video on Facebook or YouTube, please also be sure to check out our blog on bow-tiger.com. And we'll see you next Saturday. Have a great weekend. Bye.
