01/16/2026
Being a month away from having a 2 year old 🥲 has been one of the most humbling experiences of my career as a behavior analyst. Becoming a mother has given me a different perspective of the tools I provide my families and today I get to share how I implement those tools at home (without it looking like therapy)...
1️⃣ Coming from a Hispanic upbringing, we often wear all our emotions on our faces, become heated very quickly and may yell a little more than the normal human being 👀 Regulating myself before I expect it from my toddler has definitely brought a mirror to my face. What this may look like: taking a deep breath before starting a difficult task, saying out loud "this is so hard, mamá está frustrada", or even just taking a break in the form of a walk or usually a dance party to come back to zen. MODEL, MODEL, MODEL what you want to see your toddler do when they have hard times themselves!
2️⃣ Choice-making: A big goal as a mama is to make sure that she knows that her words matter. My little one has a voice and knows how to use it and SOMETIMES this backfires on me! When I know we may be doing something non-preferred or challenging, I give choices: do you want to wear the red shirt or the blue one, we need to clean up the food from the floor, do you want to do it yourself or do you want mamas help? In both scenarios our goals were met: we are dressed and our floor is clean!
3️⃣ This one is a little funny (and not funny) because baby G came into our lives 3 weeks early and as someone who THRIVES on routine and consistency, this threw me completely off. What we have done with since she was a baby was create simple and predictable routines which makes her feel safe. This is not perfect everyday or pinterest-worthy on some days but she knows what our typical routine expectations are and tolerates that these expectations are coming.
Which of these 3 tips will you try this week?
