What they see, what they absorb

Yesterday we had a play date/hangout for my 3.5-year-old with a two-year-old. It wasn’t so much a play date for him, as it was a chance for us to get to know the parents and see whether the kids will play together given their age difference.The 2-year-old has had a rough last few months where he had undiagnosed hearing loss despite seeing all kinds of specialists and audiologists. They finally caught it a couple of weeks ago and had the ear tube surgery. As a result of this, the kid is currently slightly delayed in speech and development. My son had a great time playing with him. Like any other toddler, the younger kid started to throw a tantrum as we were leaving because he wanted to keep playing with my son. His dad picked him up and a little bit sternly said, “No! No! Behave!” And throughout the car ride home and while getting ready for bed that’s all my son could talk about. “[kid’s name] was crying and his daddy was mad at him. [kid’s name] was crying and his daddy was saying no, no, no!”It made me think how much and what impacts kids and registers in their brains. While he did notice that the kid was crying, he was definitely way more impacted by the fact that the dad seemed upset. As someone who has been struggling and slowly learning to keep my cool when my toddler throws a tantrum, it served as another reminder to stay calm and power through during meltdowns. via /r/Parenting http://bit.ly/2HZ78c0