3 Things I Unintentionally Taught My Son — That Are Actually Helpful

Our children are constantly learning. I’m always amazed when I see my son watch me do something once and then immediately try to copy it — whether I want him to or not. Toddlers are little sponges, and somehow, in the middle of our everyday routines, my son has picked up a few skills that we never intentionally set out to teach him. Here are three things he learned almost entirely by accident that have turned out to be surprisingly helpful in our daily lives.

1. Arms Up

Around the time our son started to hate being on the changing table, we began doing anything and everything we could think of to keep him entertained long enough to get through a diaper change. One of our go-to distractions was moving our arms up and down while singing songs.

For whatever reason, “arms up” stuck in his little brain. Now that he’s reached the age where he wants to help with diaper changes — which is not always particularly helpful — being able to say “arms up!” and have him immediately move his hands away from a poopy diaper has become an unexpectedly useful parenting trick.

2. Switch Hands

This skill was taught with a little more guidance but no more intention than the others. During outfit changes, our son would often have something in his hands — a toy, a (clean) wipe, Mom’s hand — so when it was time to put his arms through his sleeves, whatever he was holding had to move from one hand to the other.

We started saying “switch hands” each time, initially helping him move the toy from one hand to the other before switching sleeves. Somewhere along the way, he figured out exactly what we meant. Now, when we say “switch hands,” he does it on his own without a second thought. It’s such a simple little skill, but it comes in handy surprisingly often.

3. Say Bye-Bye

Our home is definitely not screen-free, and one thing we wanted to avoid was a meltdown every time the TV turned off. So when our son was younger, we started making the transition a little more concrete by telling him to say “bye-bye” to his favorite characters before we turned off the TV.

As he’s gotten older, that has evolved into giving him warnings before screen time ends: “Five minutes until all done,” or “We’re turning it off at the end of this episode.” When the time comes, we say bye-bye to whoever is on the screen, turn off the TV, and he’ll usually move on to playing with something else.

What started as a silly little way to make turning off the TV less dramatic has actually helped him understand transitions — and given us an easy way to signal that something fun is coming to an end.

One of my favorite parts of the toddler stage is realizing just how much they’re absorbing from us, even when we have no idea we’re teaching them anything. None of these were skills we consciously decided he needed to learn, but somehow they’ve become little shortcuts that make our everyday routines easier.

Sincerely,

Your Dallas Mom Friend