The Emotional Life of the Toddler Quotes

“Parents and children help each other to grow. In raising their children, parents are also raising themselves. Child rearing gives parents the chance to redo their own childhood and to improve on it.”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, Emotional Life of the Toddler

“It is neither possible nor desirable to be always attuned and responsive to the moods and wishes of children.”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, The Emotional Life of the Toddler

“Children ask questions piecemeal because they take their time to make sense of the information they receive. They know what they can manage and stop asking when they had enough. It is a good”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, The Emotional Life of the Toddler

“Perhaps the best approach to a toddler’s wish to partake of the gifts of both genders is to sympathize with it and to provide corrective information only when the child asks for it directly. Far from being harmful, wishful thinking and fantasy play such as Lori’s and Ari’s provide the child with a safe setting to explore reality at her or his own pace. As they experiment, children come up with their own explanations for things. Parents do best not to correct those explanations unless the child asks directly for their input. The child’s fanciful ideas will be useful temporarily and will be replaced by increasingly more accurate versions of reality when the child is ready. The parent’s role is to be close at hand to provide the facts that the child wants without adding more information than the child is asking for.”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, The Emotional Life of the Toddler

“but the often observed increased involvement of fathers in the toddler years may be linked to findings that fathers as a group are more likely than mothers to promote the adventurous exploration and challenging play that toddlers are now ready to join.”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, The Emotional Life of the Toddler

“Toddlers are scared that displeasing their parents will result in losing their love, and this fear finds expression in the common difficulties of toddlerhood, such as separation anxiety, sleep disturbances, and inexplicable fears.”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, The Emotional Life of the Toddler

“The child may feel strongly about his or her goals, but it is the parent who is raising the child and not vice versa. While retaining their empathy, adults need to achieve the self-confidence to have the last word when they are not being cruel or unreasonably arbitrary.”
― Alicia F. Lieberman, Emotional Life of the Toddler