from the beginning!
In other words, don’t allow today anything you will have to undo
later.
I just heard a story of how a family reunion was ruined by one
untrained fourteen month old. What I was told is that this child screamed from the time she woke up, until the time she went to bed. She would stand in the kitchen and scream at the top of her lounges until someone got her a glass of water. This screamer had no other means of communication, only screaming.
As the relatives felt their sanity fleeing them, the parents just
replied, “Can’t wait until she turns eighteen months and we can start training her. It will be nice when she is eighteen months and understands what we are telling her.”
What is so magical about eighteen months? What doesn’t this screamer understand? When she stands in the kitchen, screams and then looks to see if anyone is coming, she definitely understands what she is doing. It is the parents that don’t understand the opportunities they are missing.
Even if a child does not understand completely, after repetition
they will catch on. If everything is done from the beginning, unlearning is eliminated. Obviously, none of us will accomplish that perfectly, yet, trying is better than screaming induced insanity.