As a new parent, and a parent of a blooming toddler, one of the hardest things is drawing the line between what actions are cute and funny and what actions need to be stopped before they get to be bad behavior. Now at nearly 16 months you can't really "discipline" other than NO. But Saturday I found myself in one of those in between moments.
We were cleaning the house and H started copying mom and dad and started "dusting" with a coaster. I turned to do something else and just happen to glance back and saw that he had stopped dusting and had pulled himself over the arm of the couch and was on the coffee table. Like a scurrying monkey he was making a mad dash trying to grab the phone before I caught him.
I quickly ran across the room, told him NO and set him on the couch. He, as he has been doing lately, was talking, animatedly, pointing to the phone as if I had just interrupted a serious mission. I told him NO again. As I was about to turn away the little monkey stuck his tongue out and made the motor boat sound - you know the one - something like pffftttt.
I had to quickly stop from laughing out loud. I asked Liz if we were doing time outs yet and she asked "why"? As I told her SHE started laughing.
I was going to let it go, figuring that he wouldn't understand why he was going for a time out after the fact...well, the little turkey kept doing it, and laughing at me. So I put him in the corner and sat with him as mom set the timer for one minute.
He looked at me like I had just stolen his ball, threw away his stuffed monkey, and stolen his juice in one foul swoop. Of course he started crying as it was probably the longest minute of his very young life.
I think he has forgiven me, but now I know that phrase that parents always give and kids never believe -- "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you". Because well, it did hurt, a little, especially having to be the one who issued that first bit of cruel and unusual punishment to such a sweet little guy...but something tells me that this was the first of many to come!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
What a stinker! Good for you guys for following through - I'm sure it must have been hard.
My first thought was "Who taught him to do that?" lol!
Good for you. Stick to your rules even if he doesn't seem to get it right away. It'll stick eventually. :)
Ah, life lessons! Look closely youngest Lucas Kids, I think I see a little "apple pie...crossing the road to Kmart" in there somewhere.
Rules suck. But not as much as a trip to the ED.
Post a Comment