[delinka]

I would wager you are not a parent. I could be wrong, but...

That's not my point. I've raised two. The youngest is 11. There are problems with your suggested approach- it teaches the child that all it takes is a cry and poof mom gives in (we call parents that are suckered in by the crying "well-trained" by their children); it doesn't solve the problem. In this case The Problem is "OMG THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT HURT AND NOW I'M FREAKED OUT" - at this point it's not about the pain, it's about being freaked out. Mom appears to have tried treating and comforting and it just didn't work. Mom figuring out that a state reset was necessary is brilliant. It's not like she put the kid in the crib and walked away for an hour (which, btw, is perfectly acceptable when the child Just Won't Quit.)

This is parenting genius. It's really not much different than the approach my friend took: kid gets hurt (bump, bruise, scrape, cut, etc), cries ... so dad gives a hug, does his Magical Wave over the injury, blathers some incomprehensible Magic Words and poof kid stops crying. Psychology, plain and simple.

[originalgeek]

I am a parent, and apparently, you can't read. I quite narrowed my statement to cover situations where THE CHILD IS INJURED. Not when the child is throwing a tantrum, or trying to negotiate. WHEN INJURED. CAN YOU READ IT IN CAPS?

[83457]

If the child was actually injured would they stop crying just out of habit? IMO one of the main reasons for performing some sort of redirection, kissing the boo-boo, etc is to find out if they are actually injured. In my experience my son may still indicate that his boo boo hurts a bit but he remains calm and verbalizes that fact. I've seen some parents freak out and dwell on the incident and go on and on while the child is sobbing. I think it is better to not make a big out of it, get the child calm by taking their mind off the incident, then attend to the injury if needed. What is worse... A child crying their head off for minutes while you hold them or bringing them to a state of calm in the matter of seconds?

[hammock]

My parents had a rule "no blood no bandaid." Which, in practice, was more metaphorical than anything. Basically it meant suck it up and walk it off. Good lesson.

[Confusion]

'Injured' is not well defined. I know a 4 y/o who, when he falls and hurts something (and that happens often enough), simply gets up, cleans it (if necessary) and goes on. He may cry/shout for a moment, like you would go 'Ouch, !!$%#&$&^', but that's the end of it. That makes another that cries and stays down until mommy comes to get him look as if he was raised pretty badly. Those are the extremes and you seem to be placing each other on opposite ends of it.