“Do it, do it, DO IT!”

Samantha attempting to put her socks on all by herself.

“Do it, do it, DO IT!”  This has been a very common phrase coming out of Samantha’s mouth for the past couple of weeks.  Translated, it means,”I’d like to give it a try, please.  I don’t want you to help me.”  It is usually followed by either frustrated squeals, or the phrase, “Yay, did it!”  Usually we hear it when she wants to put on her pants, shirt, or shoes.  Lately it has expanded to wanting to buckle herself into her car seat, wanting to be the one to open the door when Matt returns home from work, and just today it was turning on the light in the living room.

I’m a big supporter of letting my toddler do things for herself…how else will she learn?  I’m thrilled that, as she gets older, she is able to do more things on her own.  However, when we’re getting in the van, already late for wherever we’re going, I don’t always have enough patience for her to climb into her seat, put her arms into the straps, find the buckle, find the little thingies that go into the buckle, attemp to put them into the buckle (which she isn’t strong enough to do, so I’m met with resistance when I help), and then buckle the chest buckle (which she has been doing successfully for a couple of months).  It takes me about 15 seconds to do all of these steps, whereas it takes Samantha at least a full minute.  In the long run, one minute probably isn’t that big of a deal, but when we’re in a hurry to get somewhere it feels like an eternity.

I know that as Samantha continues to grow and become more independent, there will be many more times when we will just have to stop and let her try things on her own.  We do, however, look forward to her learning a more polite way of telling us to back off. 

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