I’m not trying to open up a debate on gentle parenting. I don’t particularly ascribe to it but something I have noticed is that DS (4) doesn’t listen to me or take any notice of me unless I get quite annoyed.
So take today for instance. We left an activity and he went ahead and was sitting right in front of the door waiting for me and DD(2) to catch up. I said something like ‘DS, move away from the door please, if someone opens it it will hit you in the face.’ Two more polite instructions like this and then when I snapped ‘DS - MOVE!’ he did so.
I’ve tried just ‘DS, move please,’ calmly and it doesn’t work, just doesn’t pay any attention.
We had to do some shopping in town and it was all the same - doesn’t do anything unless you show annoyance. So it feels like I’m always annoyed with him but I honestly don’t know what else to do.