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So, WTF is up w/ 'blanket training' kids?
I'm still going through the duggaresque websites and it's mentioned.
I think it scares me:
this is the wikipedia entry (which seems much more pro-blankie than I d like):
Blanket training
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blanket training is an approach to child discipline that involves training small children to remain on a blanket. The familiar blanket becomes an accepted marker of where they may roam. Training is accomplished by light switching [1] or by simple verbal correction and redirection.
"The idea is simply to train a baby to stay on the blanket when you put him/her there. With some training, babies can learn to recognize the end of the blanket as a firm boundary. As with all obedience issues, consistency is key. You don't need to be harsh, but do make your requirements clear and be consistent. Put the baby on the blanket with a toy or two, and tell her to stay there. Stay near. When baby heads off the blanket (and she will!), tell her no in a firm voice and put her back on the blanket. When baby heads off the blanket again (and she will!), respond the same way that you would the 2nd time she touches whatever you just told her not to touch. Get the idea? If you can teach your baby not to touch your purse, your glasses, your [fill in the blank], then you can teach your baby not to touch the floor. This isn't mean or oppressive - your baby will play happily within the boundaries that you establish, just as your baby can learn to be content without digging through your purse or folding your glasses in half when she finds them on the end table. You do know that babies can be taught not to touch those things, right? Once the baby understands what is expected, you don't need to stay right next to her. You can move freely about the room, or leave the room briefly. You can lay out a blanket in a friend's home and expect baby to play happily w/o breaking your friend's knick-knacks." [2]
This practice has come under fire, with opponents of blanket training calling it emotionally and physically abusive.[citatio
(this link is a bit scarier....http://inashoe.com/2007/08/blanket-training-revisited/
)
Re: So, WTF is up w/ 'blanket training' kids?
WTF indeed. That would have to be a pretty big blanket. Otherwise, I'm edging toward the "abuse" end of the spectrum.
It's like that commercial with the little girl on the bike, but she has to stay within the box.
the second link involves discussion of taking a wooden spoon and whacking all around the edges of the blankie...so baby knows that touching that = whack w/ a spoon...
I can see the appeal on a very minimal level...set down blanket, hand a toy, keep kid on blanket could be useful @ great-aunt-gertrude's house.
But threatening to make that happen rubs me the wrong way.
You plop the kid on teh blanket, you keep retreiving them. Because that's what happens when you're in a museum type place. You don't yell at the kid--they're not doing anything wrong. You don't punish them, see previous.
As does the insistance I was reading that the child MUST sit in a particular way on the (small. very very small. receiving blanket sized) blanket--no kneeling, no standing evah.
ditto
I just a friendly gal looking for options.
Uhhm, no. If the kid's mobility is such a problem, take the travel pen or watch them or better yet, don't take them to Great Aunt Gertrude's.
Crap...I Mean Crafts
sure, now that they have such things.
ALthough I wouldn't not visit and I don't plan on buying a stuipid travel pen...you simply do what parents have done for centuries, you pick up the kid and put them 'out of the way'. And when they wander, you pick up the kid and put them out of the way/someplace safe/on a blanket, etc.
we're not talking eons, we're talking an hour at the nursig home or WTF ever.
Meh, if we're talking half an hour, that's a lap or don't take 'em situation.
But really, my travel pen was one of my best investments. If we went to my mother's for lunch I could still put the baby down for a nap or put her down to play while we cooked. It was a comfortable, familiar place for her to sleep when we stayed in hotels on vacation. Worked great to take even to the park so I could push one on the swing or set up the picnic. Sure, it's more cumbersome than a blanket, but then I didn't have to invest in a wooden spoon.
I probably already have a spoon to beat the dog with :-P
(I do have a pnp...SIL gave it to me. I haven't gotten the stuff out of the basement yet...bad juju)