"No" Means... Huh?

With age comes wisdom. When you’re one year old, you have a lot of wisdom to accumulate. Accumulating wisdom to a baby means getting your hands on anything you can reach. With the all that crawling, reaching, and pulling, that inevitably all leads to one necessary thing: discipline.

Discipline is a topic I never thought I'd think about until the day came that I caught my kid stealing money from my wallet.

"If I blend into this couch, maybe Daddy won't see me."

But apparently discipline is something they need to learn much, much earlier on. To keep Baby away from dangerous things, like those pretty bottles under the kitchen sink, or large appliances, requires strict discipline.

Baby is determined to find his missing sock.

If Baby barely understands “da da,” how do you teach a baby “don’t do that or I’ll have to call poison control?” The experts suggest a firm “no” and then physically move him away from the area of offense. The two things I’m observing so far by doing this:

• Pulling Baby away from danger, whether I pick him up or drag him by his legs, both result in fun rides for him, so he may be purposely doing the wrong things just so I drag him away.
• When I relocate Baby, he’s immediately distracted by something else, so when I think he is being disciplined, in reality he probably just forgot, until he does it again the next day

"I'm not supposed to wha- wow, this can is hilarious!"

The professionals say that instead of constantly telling your baby "no," put him in an area where he can't get in trouble, also known as a "yes" area. If you're constantly saying "no" to your child, they will also eventually become desensitized to it, and that all-important word will lose all its meaning.

Baby in his "Maybe" area.

Things to say "no" to:

• Stuffing one's face:

"Harumph mooma!"

• Taking off one's pants and socks and throwing them on the floor when everyone thinks you're sleeping:
  

"I feel so freeeeeee!"