I'd rather collect acorns than cut my nails!

Here’s a quick tip – something you might want to try out if your toddler is like my Smarty Pants and doesn’t like to have his finger or toe nails cut.

My attempts to cut Smarty Pants’ nails usually results in him swiftly making a fist and withdrawing his hand to a place where I can’t reach – either behind his back or into his armpit.  This is accompanied by a firm “NO!” or “DON’T WANT IT.”  Parenting is fun.

One day, when Smarty Pants’ nails were reaching the point where he could touch me from about a meter away, something had to be done.  So, I made a game out of it… and much to my surprise, it worked!

Here is what I did – it is amazing how something so simple can be so effective:

Every time I cut a piece of nail off, I let him pick it up and throw it into the garbage.  He enjoyed doing that so much that he was happy to volunteer his nails for cutting, just so that he could have another piece of nail to pick up and throw away.  The beauty of this was that not only was he letting me cut his nails, he was also doing away with the debris simultaneously, saving me the clean-up effort.

That’s it!  I haven’t tried it since, so don’t know if it will work again, but will definitely try it again.  If you have trouble cutting your toddler’s nails, give this a try and let me know if it works for you.  It may not work every time (kids can be sooo unpredictable), but even if it works a few times, it may save you a couple of Tylenols.

Join the Jam and let us know what you do to cut your toddler’s nails.

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