Parenting Stuff - Hug it Out!

While I often feel like my wife is the one who takes the lead in parenting our daughter, I did instinctively come across something that seems to work well.

Sadie is about 20 months old now and in the last month or two she occasionally has a tantrum where she will cry, pull things out of drawers and throw them on the floor, etc. We tried the time out thing and left her in her room but both seemed to almost aggravate the situation. A couple of weeks ago when she started getting upset I naturally picked her up and held her close to my chest and told her to hug it out. Without thinking about it this seemed to calm her down and after a couple of minutes she was fine again. Of course, I enjoy hugging my child too so this seems like a win-win.

I don't think she's going to get 'soft' from this as she is still fiercely independent and goes right to bed at night with no fuss as soon as I lay her down after a bath and reading to her.

No doubt someone else has already discovered this and written about it extensively but I was pretty proud of myself for discovering it and how well Sadie responded to it. I have to say, I'm enjoying this whole parenting thing a lot more than I expected!