Discipline (Originally posted February 14, 2007)

TRANSFERRED FROM LIVEJOURNAL Last night, Kiddo I had to have a couple conversations about why he wound up in his room twice. Once was because he was putting the microphone piece to his little guitar IN his mouth rather than NEAR his mouth, and then kept getting frustrated because it wouldn't work and his voice sounded garbled. When I tried to explain to him (and he's perfectly capable of understanding what I tell him) that you don't have to eat the thing to get it to work and that if he continued to put it in his mouth, I would take it away for the rest of the night. Well, of course, I wound up having to take it away and he had an absolute meltdown. Off to his room he went, kicking and screaming at me the whole way. After about 20 minutes of screaming, he emerged from his room red-faced, tear streaked, and sniffling saying, "I'm all done now." I brought him out to the living room with me and asked him if he knew why he got in trouble. "Yes," he said through exaggerated sniffles. “Tell me why you got in trouble,” I prompted. “Because I was putting the microphone in my mouth,” he responded. “That’s right, but there was another reason. Can you tell me what else got you in trouble?” “I didn’t use my ears,” he sobbed. “That’s right, buddy – you didn’t listen,” I said. We chatted back and forth like this for a little while and then I said, “Are you hungry?” “Yes!” he answered, very excitedly. “What do you want to eat?” I asked. “Wheaties!” he exclaimed. “How about an egg and some sausage, too?” I asked. “OK!” said he, bouncing up and down. I think dinner went quite well. It was easy to make, and he ate everything on his plate. He was difficult in spurts, but he’s so darn cute I can’t stay angry with him for too long. TTFN JMS