The Illiterate Infant has been on a bit of an excursion, guest posting over at the Woolworth Baby and Toddlers Club. Rather than talking about my gifted child raising skills I decided to stay with what I know which is; talking about my failure to heed good, well researched advice from Mrs Illiterate Infant.
For anyone who’s had seen a Dad struggling with an overly enthusiastic toddler at the local supermarket, this will be a good insight into what is actually going on.
As the dad part of a parenting partnership where I work in an office and my wife works in the home, it has taken me a while to appreciate that the advice she gives me isn’t made up. No, this advice comes from three years’ experience of dealing with the complex requirements, behaviours and unpredictability of a toddler.
Like when she says I always need to know where Teddy is. Seems simple and, to the inexperienced, a little bit silly, but if you’ve ever spent 10 minutes wrangling a frenzy of arms and legs into a car seat to then be asked ‘Where’s Teddy?’ you’ll know what I mean.
‘It’s ok, Sweet. Teddy doesn’t feel like coming shopping today. He wants to stay at home, have a cup of tea and read the paper,’ just doesn’t cut it for a toddler joined at the hip to a stuffed animal. As much as I try to reason with her, it never takes long before I’m trudging back into the house to reunite them.
My wife has another piece of advice that is invariably correct; you need to feed toddlers. Especially when you’re off to do the Saturday morning food shop, solo-parent style.
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the illiterate infant 
Hi Kevin. I have had exactly the same conversation with E when she had just turned three. Off to read now.
Oh no, you didn’t lose Teddy! Friends of mine just lost Lamby and had to come to our place in the middle of the night to get one of our Monkeys as a substitute!
Pretty sure I’ve had similar experiences with each of my kids… and I wish it stopped during toddler years! My five year old is rather attached to his Woody (of Toy Story fame!)… oh dear!
Never lose Teddy!
For us it is a Jessie doll, and we once had to re pramwalk a 5 km bushland trek to find her!
Love reading from the dad’s perspective!
Oh definitely you need to feed them first. JJ gets so hangry. But if you haven’t feed them beforehand, then you need to feed them as you go. But never never never hand a soggy half chewed on carrot to the check out chick, that’s just gonna get you death stares. (Instead, pick up a new carrot, let them scan that, then ask them to put it in their pile of stuff that goes back on the shelves…)
I always take snacks to feed Punky as we go along otherwise she is just not happy. Yesterday at Big W we stopped at the coffee shop first so Mummy could get a coffee and Punky could get some banana bread. Then I chopped it up in to pieces before we went in and doled it out to her, one piece at a time. Either that or if we go to Coles without Daddy (which isn’t often as its quicker to go together and split the list) then we often get a little milkshake for her to drink and that also keeps her happy and means we don’t have to give her much lunch when we get home just in time for a nap!
Yep Teddy is really important. We accidentally left our eldest son’s teddy behind at a Doctors Appointment. He was four years old and was getting a check up for Reflux…..and the doctors appointment was four hours away from our home at the time.
Luckily I was able to track Teddy down through ringing the doctor and he was posted back to us….not sure what I would have done other wise.
And your wife is spot on, feed them before shopping, while shopping and whenever they are hungry – which is nearly all of the time!
Happy shopping.