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As children grow they go through many stages. Many of these stages drive us crazy! One of these stages that many children go through is a regression back into the baby stage. Just as your baby starts to turn into a big kid they claim that they can no longer do all of the things they learned and they need you to do it all for them.

They just got some independence and it gave you a tiny bit of time to yourself. Then all of a sudden you are back to square one. Maybe they miss being your pampered baby. Maybe they realize that the rest of their life is downhill once they are expected to do everything for themselves. Whatever the reason, as parents we want our "big kid" back.

I have one tip for this stage that is assured to help out. The main idea is to get your child excited about doing things for themselves again. You can do this by creating a "big kid" chart or making a "big kid" jar.

Simply create a list of all of the things that your child should be able to do for themselves. Make a chart with this list or tape it to a jar. If you make a chart the child can add a sticker every time they accomplish a big kid task. If you make a jar they can add any object or just a penny to the jar.

At the end of the week they can count up all of their big kid tasks and get a prize. They will get excited again about being a big kid. They may even surprise you and find new things that they can do to get big kid points.

When my kids were little I had a simple rule. You can whine all you want but you have to do it in your own room. I think the normal no whining rule is not healthy. It tells kids that they can not get upset. You want your child to learn when it is okay to be upset.

Kids are full of emotions and they have to learn how to handle them or they grow up to be adults that still can not handle their emotions. (I see them everyday)

When my kids started to whine I would say, "I understand that you are upset but it is not something that is important enough to put you in such a bad mood and ruin your day. I want to have a good day and have fun so if you want to continue to whine you have to do it in your room."

I did not physically force them into their rooms because that escalates the emotional outburst. They do not have to ever actually go to their room they just need to know that they can not whine anywhere else.

When I was done talking I would just walk away and continue with what I was doing. If they came up to me a second time I would remind them that they could whine all they want but they have to do it in their room.

After that if it continued I would just ignore them. They do it for attention. If they do not get the attention they want they stop. It helps if they see you doing something that they want to do. Then they really see that whining is a waste of time and they could be doing something more fun.

It takes time for them to catch on but they will learn that whining is pointless.