Week 3- Arisa Grevan- Conception through Infancy

" It's my belief that we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain."
     - Lily Tomlin

   Chapters 3 and 4 were a great recap of conception, child birth and the first few months. But, chapter 5 is one that truly interests me. This is where and when you start to see a difference in your baby. A personality starts to develop and physical and mental development becomes a focus. I am not a parent yet, but I have been around my share of babies and toddlers, and this infancy phase I find fascinating.

   Do you think its true that our temperament has never changed? That if we were a difficult baby then we will most likely be a difficult complaint adult?  Let me begin with Chess and Thomas's classifications of temperament. I chose theirs, not because I didn't agree with Kagan's, I just had more to question and compare with Chess and Thomas's. The Easy, Difficult, and Slow to Warm Up strikes a lot of interest for me. For example, during play time in pre-school,  (ages 3- 4) there are play "stations".  Only 4 students are aloud to be at a play station at a time. We regulate this by making them pictures of themselves with velcro on the back. There are four velcro patches on a laminated paper at eat station. When they choose to play at a station, they have to stick their picture there, if it is "full" they have to move to a different station and play there until the one they want opens up. I had a pre-k student cry because he didn't want to wait and play somewhere else, I explained to him the process again and we moved on, or so I thought we did. I turned around to see that he had taken someone else's picture off, put that on the ground and then placed his photo where the new, self-made opening had miraculously appeared. Is this a difficult child? Is this a child that doesn't follow direction. Is this a child, fast forward to 5th grade, where he is acting out in class and the parent's tell the teacher "we don't have this behavior at home", but you know that most likely they don't know the difference because they have been letting this child "get away with" this behavior since pre-k?

 What I am starting to notice is it temperament as well as nurture? If your child is noticeably "difficult" from a young age are you going to parent them the same way you parent your "easy" child.  I love the concept to maintain the "goodness to fit" as well. Your baby, and then your child is ever evolving. Parents need to keep up their parenting style to evolve with their baby's and child's developmental changes. What are some different approaches some of you parents take?