I make a perfect playmate for Dylan because I genuinely enjoy the opportunity to be an oversized baby. Excitedly crawling on the floor and tinkering with toys in amazement is hardly an act, it comes natural. Though my childlike behavior is likely to set off the weirdo alert, Dizbaby and I seem to do just fine. But the truth is I'm not a baby and I know danger when I see it. So lately when Dylan's ambitions have taken him for a ride on the wild side I find myself acting as a campaign manager of the "no" movement which I officially resign from effective immediately.
When I aggressively tell Dylan "no" the only thing he gets from it is that sometimes mommy is mean and mad at him. He doesn't connect that "no" is a reaction to what he's doing, instead it makes him edgy and scared of the word. I recently no'd him while he played with an electrical cord and he cried, crawled over to me and put his head down on my lap. A day later I used "no" in a casual conversation with my husband and Dylan was instantly on the verge of tears. There are a ton of things I can do to prevent an accident from happening that don't require Dylan to be scared of a word that I want him to understand and respect further down the line when he is older. Whether it is distraction, removal or simply letting him learn the hard way, I will no longer be terrorizing my little baby with a campaign that is teaching him nothing other than fear.