As parents of 3 small girls we have had the need arise for discipline. When the girls do something naughty or inappropriate, we usually offer a warning, try to redirect them to doing something better/nicer/away from the problem etc. and failing the success of those efforts, we give time out.
When Ella was small, she was attached to me 24/7, she hated to be in a different room from me and would follow Eddie and I around the house. Usually all I had to do was look at her with a sad face or have Eddie use a gruff voice and her little heart would break and she would do whatever was needed to get her snuggles and be happy again.
When Liana was smaller she would protest being taken to time out, but once she was there I would often hear her singing and pretending conversations with her little self. Sometimes she would just sit there and giggle, and when it was over she might choose to stay there. I still felt it was effective at stopping a bad situation but wondered if she felt rewarded for bad behavior.
Now Nina is entering the age of testing boundaries, and I think she got the memo read backwards or something,
last Friday Ella was sent to time out (for screaming at me when I told her to stop hitting Liana because she didn't do something she wanted her to uggghhhh! - but that's a different issue,) so Ella was sitting in time out, which in our house is a floor mat in the laundry room. Because Ella was crying and carrying on rather loudly (her heart still breaks rather easily) I closed the door to the laundry room while she calmed down.
Enter Nina, curious about what Ella is doing she tried to open the laundry room door, I said "no, Ella is in time out because she was screaming, you can't go in right now."
Nina looks at me curiously, thinks for a moment, and goes into the living room (scene of Ella's crime moments earlier) and without provocation starts screaming, at the top of her lungs, wailing and kicking her feet as Ella had done. I was a little puzzled until she stopped crying, walked over to the laundry room door again and pointed at the handle. Too curious to let this pass, I stifled laughter as I opened the door where she walked in and plopped herself down on the mat next to Ella and rather pleased with herself let out the phoniest cry I have heard in my life and then giggled.
Something tells me I'm gonna need a different form of discipline for her.
When Ella was small, she was attached to me 24/7, she hated to be in a different room from me and would follow Eddie and I around the house. Usually all I had to do was look at her with a sad face or have Eddie use a gruff voice and her little heart would break and she would do whatever was needed to get her snuggles and be happy again.
When Liana was smaller she would protest being taken to time out, but once she was there I would often hear her singing and pretending conversations with her little self. Sometimes she would just sit there and giggle, and when it was over she might choose to stay there. I still felt it was effective at stopping a bad situation but wondered if she felt rewarded for bad behavior.
Now Nina is entering the age of testing boundaries, and I think she got the memo read backwards or something,
last Friday Ella was sent to time out (for screaming at me when I told her to stop hitting Liana because she didn't do something she wanted her to uggghhhh! - but that's a different issue,) so Ella was sitting in time out, which in our house is a floor mat in the laundry room. Because Ella was crying and carrying on rather loudly (her heart still breaks rather easily) I closed the door to the laundry room while she calmed down.
Enter Nina, curious about what Ella is doing she tried to open the laundry room door, I said "no, Ella is in time out because she was screaming, you can't go in right now."
Nina looks at me curiously, thinks for a moment, and goes into the living room (scene of Ella's crime moments earlier) and without provocation starts screaming, at the top of her lungs, wailing and kicking her feet as Ella had done. I was a little puzzled until she stopped crying, walked over to the laundry room door again and pointed at the handle. Too curious to let this pass, I stifled laughter as I opened the door where she walked in and plopped herself down on the mat next to Ella and rather pleased with herself let out the phoniest cry I have heard in my life and then giggled.
Something tells me I'm gonna need a different form of discipline for her.
3 comments:
Haha, your kids put themselves in timeout and our 3 yr old reminds us that he deserves a spanking . . . Kids these days.
What a riot! That is way too funny!
The problem with Love & Logic is so often our kids are NOT logical! That made me laugh out loud. Cute girl.
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