James' favorite coping mechanism for handling frustration is to whack his head of the floor. Luckily the carpet is fairly padded, but the wood floor is not so soft. It's really not cool and we've tried everything to get him to stop. We've tried asking him, "firmly" telling him not to (aka yelling No), putting him in time out, explaining it to him, ignoring it, etc. We even had an entire FHE lesson on how the body is sacred and we want to take good care of it (including our cute little heads that we only get one of).
None of it worked. Research says ignoring works best, which it did... Until we figured out "Whelp!"
Whelp is really very simple, it's what James says when he's trying to say "Help." We told him that anytime he gets frustrated with something that he needs to just come to one of us and ask for help and that we are more than willing and wanting to help him out. He's taken that to heart and does a good job asking. We still see the head banging when he's super tired or we're super distracted (like when I'm nursing Daniel) but overall it's lessened dramatically.
Only problem now is that anytime anything is stuck, locked, or not working how he wants it to he says "Whelp." My favorite is when I get to say whelp back to him like, "James, would you like some whelp down the slide? Or would you like some whelp getting in the car?"
So, research, say what you like, but when head banging is concerned, a little bit of whelp just might be the cure.
I really enjoyed this story, learning more about James (Cailey throws herself backwards) and getting ideas of how to deal with situations like these- and seeing what good parents you and Mike are to work out such a great solution. Love you guys!
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