This morning marked the first Sunday morning in a LONG time when we were, at long last, able to get our 2.75 year old son to make it through an entire one-hour church service without needing to expelgate him to the lobby due to noise and/or general rambunctiousness. Yay! And I think it had everything to do with our own parental version of the “timed release” method.
What do I mean, you might ask? Just this… Mommy & Daddy pack little W’s backpack with a slew of diversions (toy cars, coloring books/crayons, dry cheerios, a Dr. Seuss book, etc) and, as the service progresses, we release each diversion one at a time. We start off with W playing with a toy car, and about 5-7 minutes after he starts with it, we pull a “hey, look at these, buddy!” and whip out 2 other, different cars he can now incorporate into his play! But wait, there’s more… about 5 minutes after that, it’s time to reveal the dry cheerios. W integrates general munching in with his current car play. Then, about 10 minutes later, look what Mommy has – W’s favorite “One Fish, Two Fish” Dr. Seuss book! That sucker is good for at least 15 minutes, especially since he likes to point at most of the pictures on each page and read along with us…
You get the gist. But it works like a charm! Granted, we still get the random attempts by little W to beat a path to the lobby right past our legs, so there are containment issues still present. But the “timed release” formula for church-time diversion seems to be the way to go. Hope it works for other parents out there who have a little one that is, shall we say, “easily distracted.” Enjoy!
I always knew you were a genius. Now if you can just turn this into a methodology with a medical-sounding name, you can capitalize on it and be set for life.