Every parent wishes to give their children a good start in life through the parenting journey of nurturing, protection, and guidance. Parental experts say to be successful, parents need to learn developmental milestones, including emotional and social development at the formative years of a child - two to three years old. "Parenting toddlers is one of the hardest jobs," says Leila Makoli as she remembers over parenting her children (now aged 14 and 16), during their toddler age. "I remember those parenting days well, because my son Colton and later my daughter Soraya made me crazy till I thought I would not live to see them past five years," says Leila. Nassim and Riziki Kasena are parents to five-year-old Ahsan, who made life unbearable through actions that almost cost his and their lives. The couple was envious of their neighbour couple, Dan and Eva Muroki, parents to three adoring teenagers.
They must have had a fun time unlike them while parenting their children through toddlerhood, or so they thought, until they heard about their experience. "We learnt that it was difficult to parent their first, second, and third children through their toddler years," says Nassim. He says from their neighbour couple, they learned parenting was new every day, with each child posing individual challenges, and just when a parent thinks they have got the little one figured out, oops, they change. To ease the pain and challenges of parenting Ashan, the Murokis volunteered to mentor first-time parents as they parented the toddler for the past three years. Today, Nassim and Riziki have an 18-month-old toddler, who they are grateful to parent wisely with the lessons learnt from the Murokis. "We encourage parents with toddlers to invest in finding a mentor, preferably older couples who have gone through this phase of parenting multiple children who are in late CBC or junior school as these parents have toddlerhood fresh on their minds," advises Riziki. Gladys Wangechi, a teacher a parenting coach, and a mother to a five-year-old daughter, says the phase of parenting two to three-year-olds is referred to as "the terrible twos". "The terrible twos term is used to describe this stage as toddlers begin to assert their independence, a phase that can be exciting as the toddler undergoes huge changes in their thinking, learning, social, and emotional abilities," says coach Wangechi. She explains at this stage, toddlers should be able to follow simple instructions and sort objects by shape and colour.
Additionally, they should be able to imitate the actions of adults and playmates and express a wide range of emotions. According to the expert, at the age of two years, a toddler is talking, walking, climbing, jumping, running, and bustling with energy.
The child has a growing vocabulary and acquires new words regularly. Nassim and Riziki advise parents of toddlers to be cautious about how they handle them as this is their formative years that will shape their adult lives. Remember your toddler is your responsibility and should not be left at the hands of a help or caregiver all the time, as this might mess them up," advises the Kasenes. Expert tips on parenting toddlers The years before age five are crucial to your child's development.
