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At three, he can absolutely start learning how to wait when someone else is talking, but I wouldn’t expect him to be able to do it consistently yet. His impulse control is still developing, and when he has something to say, it can feel very hard to hold onto that thought while you finish your conversation. Even if he gets plenty of attention throughout the day, hearing you talking to someone else can suddenly make him think, Wait, I have something to say too! Three-year-olds are not exactly known for patiently waiting on the sidelines of a conversation.

Explaining that grown-ups need time to talk is helpful, but at this age it works even better to give him a specific plan for what to do instead:

• Set the expectation before you start talking. If you know you need a few minutes to talk with someone, tell him ahead of time: “I’m going to talk for a little bit. You can play while we talk, and then I want to hear what you have to tell me.” This makes it less surprising when your attention shifts and gives him something concrete to expect.

• Teach him a quiet way to get your attention. Have him gently put his hand on your arm or leg when he wants to tell you something. You can place your hand over his or make brief eye contact to let him know, I see you. I’ll get to you. Then finish what you were saying before turning to him. Practice this when you’re not actually in the middle of an interruption so he can learn the skill when he’s calm.

• Notice when he waits. The moments he doesn’t interrupt are easy to miss, but those are the ones you want to reinforce: “Thank you for waiting until I finished talking. Now tell me!” Specific praise helps him understand exactly what he did well.

• Teach him when interrupting is okay. We don’t want kids to think they can never interrupt an adult. Explain that if someone is hurt, something feels unsafe, or he really needs help, he should tell you right away. You can even practice the difference: “You want to show me your truck? That can wait. You fell and hurt your knee? Come tell me right away.”

And when he inevitably interrupts anyway, you don’t need to stop for a long explanation. A simple, “I hear you. I’m talking right now. Use your hand and I’ll be with you when I’m done,” is enough.

He’s probably going to interrupt you plenty while he learns this. Keep giving him the same cue and lots of chances to practice. As his impulse control grows, waiting for a turn in the conversation will get easier too.

And if interrupting is just one of the many toddler behaviors you’re trying to figure out right now, the PedsDocTalk Toddlers & Tantrums Course has practical tips, scripts, and real-life scenarios to help with tantrums, meltdowns, boundaries, and more.

It’s very tempting to pull out, “If you eat this, you can have dessert,” when you’ve served the same rotation for what feels like the hundredth time and just want them to please try one bite.

Is it terrible if you’ve done it? No. I just wouldn’t make it your go-to strategy. When we regularly say, “Eat the broccoli and then you can have the cookie,” kids can quickly learn that broccoli is the thing they have to get through to reach the actually good food. Bribing can also push them to eat because they’re focused on earning the reward instead of paying attention to whether they’re hungry, full, or interested in the food.

And yes, offering new foods again and again AND AGAIN is key. Toddlers often need a lot of exposure before a food feels familiar enough to try. And exposure doesn’t only count when they take a bite. Looking at it, touching it, smelling it, licking it, or letting it sit on the plate all count. You can make those repeated exposures easier by keeping them really low-pressure:

• Keep a safe food on the plate. Serve something you know he’ll usually eat alongside the newer food. He doesn’t need an entire plate of unfamiliar things staring back at him.

• Take “just one bite” off the table for a while. Put the food there and let him decide what he does with it. The more pressure he feels to try it, the more he may dig in.

• Let him explore it. Dips, stacking food, helping wash vegetables, or picking something at the grocery store can make a new food feel a little less suspicious.

• Keep portions tiny. One piece of broccoli is exposure. You don’t need to serve a whole pile of it.

• Notice the small steps. “You touched the avocado!” or “You smelled it!” may seem small, but those are the steps that often come before tasting.

• Keep offering without keeping score. Some foods take a lot of appearances before a toddler finally decides, Okay fine, maybe I’ll try.

For more ideas, I have a PedsDocTalk YouTube video with practical ways to help picky eaters explore and try new foods without turning every meal into a negotiation. And if picky eating is starting to take over mealtimes, the Picky Eating Playbook goes much deeper into food refusal, exposure, desserts, pressure, what to serve, and how to respond when your child wants absolutely nothing to do with what’s on the plate.

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Dr. Mona will answer these questions in a future Sunday Morning Q&A email. Chances are if you have a parenting concern or question, another parent can relate. So let's figure this out together!