Im living day to day unsure of how to really interact with my son to get to know him. I know his material likes but dont know his emotions and what he feels inside. I was ignored as a child and really struggle with relating to my son.

Im constantly telling him to slow down and listen, be still, stop fidgeting. But I see he gets it from me. I have an extreamly hard time with thia because im scared of yelling at him and losing my patients.
I want to teach him things but I dont know where he is at developmentally…how can I find out?
I feel like im failing him as a mom. My 5 month old well her to. I cant seem to get a schdule going for her. Please can you help

Just chiming in that this has always worked with my nephew. He seems to do it when he’s around adults he loves, but they’re paying attention to each other instead of to him. Stopping to listen to his answers (which are always interesting!) seems to satisfy him better than a distracted, “That’s a banana,” does.

Are there any RIE play groups/parent-baby classes like the ones you hold/talk about on your blogs in South Africa?

So my LO is not old enough to ask these repetitive questions yet. But a friend gave me an strategy that I have used with her 3 yr old and other kids since because the repetitive questions seem to be a common theme. Kids love repetition! Anyway, she says “that’s a good question. What do you think it is?” (I’ve used other variations too, like I don’t know what do you think it is? etc) This seems to get them engaged and turns the question around to make it their responsibility to answer. I’ve found that this gets them to stop asking they same question over again and works for the “Why?” question. And if they don’t stop asking question you just go on broken record with the phrase above. Who knows, maybe today, the banana is a rocketship.