Love and Logic for toddlers

As a young teacher I swore that if I ever had children, I would find the toddler version of Love and Logic and read it. Well, I recently purchased the book and am barely into it. So far, it's very similar.

I can't believe the strategy works as well on my 13 month old as it did on my teenagers in the classroom. Frankly, I didn't believe my son had enough of a grasp on the language for it to work, but you tell me...

Max happily played with a box of Elmo bandaids as I carted him around Walmart this morning. Then, it occurred to him that shaking the box was not nearly as fun as taking the bandages out and dropping them on the floor.

I figured it was as good a time as any to try Love and Logic for the first time with him.

Stopping the cart, I said, "Oh. How sad."

I picked up the dropped bandaids and placed them in the box. With a sad face, I said to Max, "I'm so sad because if you do that again, I'll have to take the box from you and you were having so much fun."

Returning the box to him, I said, "Here you go. I hope you get to keep playing with it."

Our shopping continued and he gleefully shook the box of bandaids until several flew out on his lap.

I stopped the cart and said, "Uh-oh." You should have seen him scramble to collect them and try to stuff them back in the box!

Could Jim Fay's Love and Logic be the answer to my parenting as it was to my classroom management? Oh, let's hope so!