Do you find yourself constantly being tugged at by little hands? Or perhaps you find yourself with a creature whining at you for attention while you try to do things? What about this one: whatever you are doing, your toddler wants to do with you, even if it's something dangerous like chopping vegetables for supper?

My recently tested answer for you, the stressed out parent is this: inclusion. My son is almost two, and has started to show signs of his age. That means that things have to be done in a proper order, or a meltdown occurs, or that mommy can't give her attention to anyone but him. Both of these scenarios, as well as many others pose serious time threats to parents. As long as we can realize that time is the only thing at stake, we can effectively manage our toddler's behavior as well as share awesome quality time with them.

In my last post I discussed the idea of taking things slowly. This is along that same line of thinking. If we can pull ourselves out of the grind that would have us plug away at our tasks at home, to slow down and find ways to include our toddlers, we can foster better relationships with them as well as teach them how to be a part of our day-to-day activities.

Something that is important at our house is making our own food. We don't like to buy boxes or cans of food, at least not for supper. Most nights, we make things from scratch. We also don't eat a lot of meat, so that usually means chopping several vegetables. Chopping can get time consuming. Before I had this revelation of inclusion, I would tell my son to wait five minutes, put a song on for him to dance to, and sometimes I would get downright angry at his demands for attention.

The other night, he helped himself to a stool and stood at the counter top while I cut up some onions for a soup I was making. I decided to take action before he got bored and tried to climb onto the counter top. I handed him a plastic knife and the skin of the onion. Then I showed him how to chop it up, just like how mommy was doing. He was so tickled to be a part of the soup making process! He actually "helped" me in the kitchen for over an hour. His attention rapt, he ended up next to the stove on his stool with a small skillet that he'd poured some water into from the tea kettle.

He also found some dried up macaroni on the counter top that didn't make it into the last batch of mac'n'cheese we had for lunch. He carefully added each little bit of macaroni, and stirred it with the spaghetti fork I gave him. To top it all off, I gave him a stale bottle of basil to add to it. He was ever so happy cooking with mommy.

No matter what you're doing that seems like a chore, whether it be sweeping, laundry, or dishes, find a way to let your kiddo in on what you're doing. If they grow up seeing you take pride in the household and offer to share it with them, they'll be more likely to help out and follow your example, and continue as they grow older. If you shout at them and discourage them from helping because it takes a little longer, or they don't do it quite right, they're not only going to be upset, but they probably won't want to participate with household chores if they associate it with mom and dad getting angry.

So the next time your little one wants help cook, or put laundry in the basket, help them out, and show them a safe and kiddo-easy way to do what you're doing.