A very interesting philosophy I found in the following article:
How to raise a happy child (ages 2 to 4) by Jill Storey (July 2006)

What she suggests as ideas consists a few simple rules about raising a happy child. Here are some extracts from the article, that I see applying to our case.

• Learn to read the signs

For a month or two now we have a two-year-old at home. As if with the birthday turned into new challenges. The previous year we were mostly occupied with walking, eating, doing-things-alone, teething, going up and down the stairs, saying the first words. This time there are some even more interesting (and worrying) challenges.