We continue with our special Babies and more on travel by car with babies, and today we are going to devote ourselves to one of those sections for which it is often difficult for us to have an agile and effective solution. It's about traveling by car with babies who don't stop protesting all the way.
About caring for a baby who cries a lot, our partner Mireia Long is talking these days, so in this post we are going to focus on that problem inside the car, when it occurs while we make one of our trips.
And, if in any everyday situation the cry of a baby can be desperate, that same cry heard over and over again in a small and closed space such as a car can lead to a real risk to our security and for the baby's. It would not be the first time that a driver becomes so desperate for the crying of a baby who loses sight of the road and ends up suffering a collision completely avoidable, so it is best to understand what happens with the child and how to avoid getting there to situations of difficult resolution.
To begin, we must understand a basic question, and that is that the baby's crying is part of the very poorly developed communication capacity that the child has. Until you learn to get attention in another way and end up asking for things please, whining, pouting and even the most heartbreaking crying constitute your vocabulary, so you have to understand that when the baby cries it's like talking to us, hence in the title of this text the verb "protest" appears and not simply "cry."
A subjective approach, objective response
We also know that before a baby who gives start conversation, we have to review our basic book answers: food, hygiene, temperature, comfort and affection, because normally those are going to be the topics of conversation that the baby will propose to us. Any change that occurs around you will be uncomfortable, so you will comment your thoughts with great detail so that we are informed of what goes through your mind.
And usually when we travel by car with the baby we will find that he gets angry because, from your point of view, by putting it in the child seat we are neglecting it in terms of emotional needs and very possibly in terms of comfort, and it is that no matter how comfortable a child restraint system is, it can never be compared to good arms on which to rest. From your point of view.
But, of course, as we know, the only way to properly care for the baby when traveling by car is sit it in an appropriate child restraint system, so we are going to have to get him to learn that this is the best for him ... and we are going to do it by dialogue. We will stop the car in a safe place, we will go with our baby. A warm hug, a few quiet words ... and as soon as I start to be calmer, we are going to put it back in the chair explaining that it is for your good, that we are going to sit there and that we are going to buckle the straps these so beautiful that carries the chair. Do you see how good
And start over
And the baby will protest again, of course. Will be willing to argue in all the ways that occur to him that he is right and that it is we who are wrong. But we know that he has to travel in the child seat because otherwise his life is in danger, so we will have to be prepared for the debate.
The human brain learns by repetition. From the repetition of a sequence that we are learning, we move on to the custom of following it step by step and later we come to integrate the habit by which we do something without almost being aware of it. To draw some parallels, let us remember that “4 × 5 = 20, 4 × 6 = 24, 4 × 7 = 28” with which we delighted any family member who wanted to listen to us while we were learning the multiplication tables. First we declared them calculation by calculation, then little by little we commented quietly on those loose operations, such as the “8 × 7 = 56”, which we had trouble remembering, and finally it was no longer necessary to repeat anything because we had integrated it. And the same happened to the fateful irregular verbs in English. There is nothing left of the “sing sang sung” and company if we are able to spontaneously ask “Who sang that song in those commercials?”, For example.
Yes, the baby's learning is going to have to be by pure and hard repetition. The message "To go by car you have to travel in the chair" is going to counter your message "Step chairs, I love you" and so it will be the thing until, little by little, he understands that by the fact of traveling in a child seat we do not want less. But to get it, we have to continue an immovable guideline, a sequence that is always repeated in the same order:
We will stop the car in a safe place, we will go with our baby. A warm hug, a few quiet words ... and as soon as I start to be calmer, we are going to put it back in the chair explaining that it is for your good, that we are going to sit there and that we are going to buckle the straps these so beautiful that carries the chair. Do you see how good
If that is our guideline, the strength of our speech and, more importantly, that the baby understands that these are the rules of the game and internalize them as such will depend on our being faithful to that pattern. The moment we introduce a change in the sequence ... he will not understand anything, the change will catch him off guard and he will feel very insecure, so he may let us know with his particular form of expression. And besides, it is very likely that what we have done so far will not help, so we better be careful.
And everything, at your own pace
But if it is important to respect the pattern, respect the child's learning pace It is essential, and that is not going to acquire the habit of traveling in your child seat until you learn that this is the way to travel by car, so if we try to accelerate the process with anger, quarrels or discussions, or not leaving that he expresses himself when we have explained (for the fiftieth time, I know) how beautiful the chair straps are, all we will do is hinder his learning process.
Logically, if we put all this in the context of a car trip, one of those present will say that all this is very good, but that there are schedules to meet and that they wait for us at this or that time in such a place. And surely he will be right, but that is not going to make the baby feel better, so feeling it a lot we will have to do without that very reasonable and surely correct contribution, but that does not paint too much in this whole process.
The solution for these cases? Anticipate the ritual that awaits us and leave before home to avoid being rushed along the way. There is no other: if the baby does not understand more schedules than the ones marked by the body, how can we pass the pressure of knowing that we have to arrive on time at our destination? Does it make sense?
The club detail
Sponsor:
At the Opel Meriva Baby and More Club, we propose a space to share ideas, experiences and promotions related to the car as a vehicle for the family. Stay tuned to this section and you will have access to all the information you need about children and babies as a decisive factor when buying a car. A page that aims to provide valuable content for all parents who are in the complicated situation of choosing a car. Good car to travel comfortable and safe with the little ones.
