Discipline

I have been sounding like my mother more and more lately. I say things like "Young Lady" and "you listen here"... things she always used to say (in a very stern voice). I've given Madeley the look several times in the past few weeks. You know the look, right? It says, "You'd better straighten up before I take you outside!" It was fierce when my mom gave it to me! The look said a whole lot more than a raised voice ever could. I'm thinking that my parenting skills are ending up to be just like my mother's. Which can't be a bad thing... I think I turned out pretty well. I don't think my mother ever tried "time out" with us though. We have tried it a few times with Madeley, but she is hard headed and just goes right back to what she was doing. Lately, I've tried to do my best of avoiding situations where she may get into trouble. Such as... Madeley always gets scolded while I'm attempting to load or unload the dishwasher. She wants to pull out all the silverware, dirty or clean. She wants to climb on top of the door when it's down, and no amount of time out teaches her not to. So I've decided to only handle the dishwasher situation when she's in bed or in her highchair... avoiding the trouble (I decided this today.). Example #2: I keep a cup in Madeley's bathtub so I can wash the soap out of her hair. She loves to dump water out of the cup, but she recently started dumping the water out of the tub! I get furious and try to teach her not to dump over the bathtub wall... failure. So why not avoid the situation for now and take the cup away? Then I can escape the anxiety of water running everywhere, and not have to scold her for it. I know what you're thinking... Why don't you just stop her from pouring the water out of the tub before she does it? Well, I wish I could, but she's super fast! And it's ended up all over me more than a few times. Final example: Madeley ate crayons the other day. Of course, I was upset and checked the box for the poison control number... then reminded myself that the crayons are non-toxic and would not hurt Madeley. Then I called Jaki to remind me that the crayons are non-toxic and would not hurt Madeley. I talked with Madeley about coloring with the crayons and not eating them. I seriously thought she was out of that "I put everything in my mouth" phase. Then it dawned on me... I put Madeley in her highchair to color with the crayons. When have I ever put her in the highchair for any reason other than to eat?? I haven't. So I'm sure the second I handed her the crayons, she thought, "Yummy, dinner!!" My lesson here is that I should have thought this through, and I could have avoided it. I should have sat her somewhere other than the highchair and colored with her the entire time. Instead, I was busy cooking dinner while my daughter was chewing up red, blue, and orange crayons and definitely not coloring with them!

To sum up this post, discipline is a learning process. No book is ever going to adequately teach you how to handle your child. I think I am going to take a few lessons from my mother, and a few Madeley adapted lessons, and hopefully she will turn out great... and a lot of help from the Lord, of course!!

Thanks for reading!!


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