Tips for Taking Your Toddler to Holiday Events

For the longest time I was always a little bit anxious about taking my two year old out and about. I would always worry about how she was going to behave. Was she going to be a sweet little angel or was she going to throw a tantrum that everyone was going to remember. There was no real way to be sure and since she, like most toddlers, was likely to be the center of attention among our family of adults and school age children there was no way to keep to the shadows with her where no one would notice a tantrum if one started.

So to get ready for the holiday parties and events that I knew would start just after Thanksgiving I started taking my daughter out to visit friends, and family to see how she would react and what things kept her calm. I noticed right away that since her memory was getting better each day if I mentioned who we were going to see she would remember a bit about them, especially favorable things, and look forward to getting to our destination. With that in mind I would start taking about her favorite part of a friend or families house about a day or two before we were scheduled to visit.

When going to see her grandmother I would tell her about grandma's Christmas Tree (which she adored), and her banana's because my daughter loves bananas so my mother always has some handy. If we are going over to one of my local friends house I might mention her favorite playmate there or a toy she really liked/admired and that would get her looking forward to the trip. It always made me happy to wake up to the sound of her asking when we were going 'bye bye to so and so's' house rather than dreading how she would react when we got there.

Now that you've gotten your little one excited about the trip the key is to keep them excited once they get there. If they are going to be around friends near their own age and size let them play and explore. My daughter loves playing with her older cousins and is usual happy going about her own devices rather than sitting with me during the entire visit. Or if there is something your toddler wants to play with and it isn't going to affect anyone else try to let them do it. Don't let the fear of others thinking you are spoiling your child or letting them have to much freedom interfere with what you're doing and your time or theirs.