Oct 20 • Parenting
🥰 Hug time!
When Emily was 3 she LOOOOOVED the film Trolls.
We must have watched it literally 50 times in a few months.
She always loved lying with me or Linzi and snuggling.
Her favorite part of the movie was "hug time", which for those non-aficionado's regarding Trolls, is when the Trolls set an alarm to have a huge group hug. It is really quite wholesome.
Well, Emily was going through one of her development stages and being particularly clingy and needed a lot of reassurance. For those that know what I am talking about, you will understand how stifling it can be having a child constantly needing reassurance and contact.
I was still in the military and was working crazy hours and weird shifts, so she REALLY clung to me.
The next time she was playing, I sat with her and steered the conversation around to what was going on with her. And like any normal self-respecting 3 year old, she had no idea. 🤦♂️
I asked, did she just want to be made to feel special and loved, to which she replied "yes".
So, I stored this new info in my, 'things to try and figure out' file in my brain so that I could ruminate over it in the next few days.
Later that day of course, we had a date with Trolls (aaaaagain?!)....
That is when I had the idea hit me square in the face, "Hug Time"!
We set an alarm for every 30 minutes and when the alarm went off, we all got together as a family and had a group hug for 30 seconds.
It. Was. A. Game-changer!
Within an hour Emily was less clingy and more content. The added bonus was that Max became less high-energy and calm.
After a week I stretched it to 40 mins. Next week 50 mins, then eventually an hour.
Simple, yet super effective!
Who knew Princess Poppy could teach me something about connection, despite watching it 429 times beforehand... 🥴
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🥰 Hug time!
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