Discipline sucks. I hate it. Hated as the kid, hate it maybe more as the mom. OK, maybe not more, but hate it now. I love to play with my girls, they are both so amazing to me, and Payton is really fun to be around when she's happy. She is awesome and lovable and sweet and cute and funny and wonderful. BUT, sometimes she misbehaves and I have to teach her that she can't do or act certain ways and it kills me to do it. I remember my dad spanking me once on the side of the road because CC and I were not doing what we were supposed to do in the back of the car. He had tears in his eyes and that made me feel worse than the punishment, but even seeing that and remembering it all these years later I had no idea how much it could hurt to have to be the bad guy. I don't want to tell her no, I want to play and give in to her every wish so that she'll be the happy kid that she can be, but sometimes I have to stand up to that darned two year old and it is no fun at all. It actually hurts.
Yesterday Payton was the biggest brat. I tried so hard to be the boss, although I think that she may have won, but I'll get to that. In the morning I had to meet with a client so the girls had to tag along. She threw a minor fit in the parking lot because she didn't want to leave the customers. Then in the car on the way to meet her friends at Kid Zoo, she was yelling and whining and waking her sister up. At this point I should have canceled Kid Zoo, but I had already made plans to meet another mom and her kids, so I kind of felt like I owed it to them to be there. So we met up with her friends and since we were there much later than nap time I thought we'd drive through BK and get her some lunch so that she could eat before she fell asleep. As I was trying to pull out of the parking lot she was crying and whining for nuggets. It went on and on as I was fighting to cross traffic and then waited behind 4 other cars in the drive through. Of course the whole time I was trying to explain to her that I was working on getting lunch for her. I considered pulling away as punishment, but I needed to get some food in her before she fell asleep. As a peace offering I ordered her a juice box which is usually only reserved for very special occasions. She was a brat about that as well telling me she didn't want it. She proceeded to eat her nuggets and drink her juice, but when we got home she would not go down for her nap. She came downstairs three times, and each time I carried her back up to bed with various tactics. I was nice, I was mean, I begged. One time she came down diaper in hand. I was ready to kill her. Eventually she did fall asleep. So on to the evening. She woke up happy and snugly. She asked for nuggets again, so in an effort to keep the peace, I made her more nuggets. I put her plate of chicken nuggets and green beans on her table for her as I normally do. She REFUSED to eat them. This is where I finally put my foot down. I was furious. I know that blowing up at her doesn't make her do anything, so I thought I'd try a new tactic. I told her that I wasn't going to talk to her until she ate her dinner. I was certain that the cold shoulder would bring her around, but boy was I wrong. For about 1 1/2 hours I ignored her. I put away all of the toys and turned the news on. She laid on the floor and played with her own feet. A few times she tried to get my attention, hugging my leg, being loud, walking in front of me. For the most part I just ignored, occasionally I'd remind her that if she'd eat her dinner I would talk to her and we could play, but not until then. The darn kid is stubborn! On and on until eventually Jason got home from tennis and I still wasn't speaking to her. Jason went upstairs to shower and that really set her off. She wanted to shower, but wasn't allowed to because she hadn't eaten her dinner. But she didn't break. Eventually she was put to bed without dinner. Here's the kicker. This morning as I was carrying her out to the car, she looked over at the kitchen counter where the plate still laid and said "No Dinner."
Brat.
No comments:
Post a Comment