Sloan, who usually is required to have an hour long “rest time” in his room had a few, shall we say, attitude problems today. When it was time to come in and he threw a lovely five year old tantrum, I upped his room time to an hour and a half, which prompted a melodramatic drop to the floor and great heaving sobs. He then kicked a chair over, which led me to up his room time to 2 hours. Which prompted more wailing.
He has a penchant for drama. I don’t know where he got that from. Ahem.
As I put Tia to bed I heard his mournful cries and genuinely felt bad for him. The kid is so much like me that I know how painful isolation for two whole hours would be.
When I came out, I gave him a hug and explained to him that his attitude and actions have consequences. He nodded. “I’m sorry mom that I made that bad choice. It wasn’t wise to slam the door and kick the chair.”
After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I agreed with him and told him I forgive him. Then came the kicker…
“Mom, I really don’t want to spend 2 hours in my room. I just really wanted to come out after an hour and spend time with you because I love you and I like to be with you.”
So I lowered the room time to 1.5 hours.
I know, I know… I’m a pansy.
ahhh…been there.
i’ll NEVER forget once growing when up my brothers & i freaked out about the vegetable soup that my mom made for dinner. my dad decided it would be a great lesson on grace. he ate all 3 of our bowls for dinner that night instead of sending us to bed (our usual meal protest punishment)!
LOL! he’s a charmer! 😉
Nicely played, young man!
He knows exactly what to say now.
Must be the age??? Brooke has been more whiney, sassfull, and had more crying outbursts this past yr of her life!! HOW can you possibly make him stay in for his full 2hr punishment after those sweet words!!!
Ha ha ha ha! Well, you didn’t TOTALLY cave. If you would have totally caved, THEN you would have been weak. But caving on a half hour…nah. You’re just giving him a tad bit of grace. He still had consequences so that’s good. I say you did an awesome job! (But that is speaking as a mom who also has a kid with a touch of drama….)