The Z and I had one today...and in the end, no one was really the winner! Has this ever happened to you? And I wonder where he gets it from!! ;-)
So on our day off I was thinking we may go to the nearby bounce house to expend some energy this morning. All was going well in our world. Mark and I were dressed and Zach was playing with his leggos. I told him if he wanted to go to the bounce house, we needed to get dressed and put up the blocks. He started and got about a 1/3 put up and then moved on to riding his motorcycle around the house. I gently reminded him that if he wanted to go, we needed to a) get dressed and b)put the blocks up. Thankfully a dirty diaper was also calling that took care of the getting dressed part as I had him up on the dresser anyway! So...downstairs we went again...reminder #3 about the blocks. He put a few more up and then moved on to cars. Gentle reminder #3 that before we moved on to the next mess, we need to clean up the first one! I am sure you can see where this is going....For whatever reason, the little dude WOULD NOT PICK UP THE DANG BLOCKS! All of this resulted in lots of No, no mommy and a couple of time outs for Z and his toys and tears....I amazingly never lost my cool but I felt like I got in too far that I couldn't give in! Ever been there before? Time out for him, time out for toys, taking away of toys, sitting together to clean up....nothing worked! ARGH. Finally after the last time out while he was sitting at the top of the stairs whining, I just took Mark out to the back yard to enjoy the sun shine, too much time wasted already. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Z has decided to wander out too. We hugged and made up and had a picnic on the patio complete with music and dancing and the day was not a total loss...but those blocks never did get picked up and no bounce house either.
Before the night was over, Matt helped him pick up the blocks and I got a "saw-ee" too. All of the toys were released from their time out and all was still well in the house.
But what to do in these situations? Do you give in for the sake of not wasting the day/sweating the small stuff...or hold strong as he needs to learn consequences too?? I obviously held strong and feel perhaps a lesson was learned...I guess we shall see when the next time it is time to clean up! :)
I would recommend sticking to your guns. I've totally been in that situation. It is so frustrating because it seems to be a really small thing and then it escalates into a full out battle and then you can't give in no matter how inconsequential the whole thing is. Just make sure you can carry out your threat when you make it. Like if you've bought tickets to a show already and you don't want to waste them, then don't threaten that the kid won't be able to go. I think you did the right thing. The kids are testing their boundaries at this age even if it doesn't seem like it. They are taking notes to figure out just how much they can get away with and how far they can push you.
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