Life with a three year old is a battle of wills, at least in our house it is. Our day goes like this, Wake up! Go to the potty! Stand up! Sit down! Eat your food! Don’t throw! Don’t kick! Go to timeout! You’re gonna get a spanking! Get in the bed! Go to sleep! (And on a side note, I cannot for the life of me understand why it’s so hard for him to do things which are actually quite great to most everyone else, like eating, napping, and for God’s sake pooping.)
I feel like all we do is get on to him these days and most of the time he just looks at us (sometimes laughs) and keeps doing whatever it is we are telling him not to do. The madder we get, the more he just goes on. I have to admit, I have gotten pretty mad, to the point where I kinda scared myself and got nothing, no reaction, no fear. The only thing that seems to work is when we take something away. One night last week, I literally went through every discipline tactic I know, I think I even pinched his ear at one point, and the thing that got him upset was when I took away the basketball bath toy he was playing with. What? Of all those things I did, including yelling, what upset him most was when I take away a little rubber ball? So, we have restructured our whole plan of attack and now we are going with taking things away, or turning the computer or ipad off (in the middle of his show, the horror!), sending him to bed (which was dually beneficial last night, because it was bedtime anyway, and it saved us 10 minutes of transition time from the table to his room).
Which brings me to my next point. Why does everything take so long? The kid has mastered the art of stalling, especially at bedtime. Before we know it 30 minutes have gone by, and he’s just getting into bed, then we have to sing itsy bitsy spider and twinkle twinkle, he asks for Bingo, we ALWAYS tell him we’ll sing it tomorrow, and we NEVER sing it tomorrow. Then, he goes over the colors his night light emits, asks for a hug and a kiss, then lays down and without fail calls out for one or both of us even after that. What’s up with that?
We were pretty blessed with easy 2’s, so I guess the 3’s are our time, and we will not be defeated, he has no idea who he’s dealing with!
Who me?!
Hahaha, hang in there, girl! I sort-of feel the same way with Caden, and he's only 18 months! What do we have to look forward to?!?! I feel like I am always saying "Don't do this, don't do that" to him. Repetition ALL THE TIME. But, I just keep telling myself to be consistent and pray to goodness that he's gonna be a well-behaved kid at the end of these toddler years! ;) Sooo, yeah, I feel ya!
ReplyDeleteThat is SO Henry. The only thing that gets him is to take something away. . . . It doesn't even have to be his. One day we were in the car so I just grabbed something (I think it was my cup) and told him I was taking it away from him. You should have heard the howls!! Poor kid (and poor me)! Hang in there!
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