Friday, August 8, 2008

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Claire, seething with rage, sits in her time out chair as punishment for trying to hit Daddy. Exasperated by her thwarted efforts to "punish" M for telling her what to do (The nerve! Like he was her parent or something!) and casting about for a course of action that makes her still feel in control, she yells:

"Scott, go hit Daddy!"

Because all that matters in the end is that someway, somehow, Daddy still gets hit. And by golly, if she can't do it, she'll find someone who can. If she can boss someone around in the process, all the better!

I'm thinking time outs aren't working very well. Does the remorse come with age???

5 comments:

Leann said...

oh man! I'm sorry... but I don't have any advice. Not the expert here in any way.

azufelt said...

Madison totally bosses B around, it's kind of funny.

As for time-outs, they still work around here (we do nose on the wall), But M has gotten a little violent recently and has a tendency to be mad that she's in trouble and slam her hand against the wall. What do I do about that?

But time-out still worked at the pool too, when she wasn't listening to the lifeguard (no nose to the wall there!! It worked because she remembered it the rest of the week and listened to the lifeguard!

Liz H. said...

classic! this reminds of the time my niece said to my sister (her mom): "mom, don't talk to me that way!" (she's 4 yrs old)...

Matthew said...

The nose on the wall is the ideal "time-out." You can't look at things, you can't play with toys, you can't even sit down. In fact, staring at the wall is far more boring (and hence a better punishment) than watching grass grow. To a kid, punishment isn't about what they can or cannot do... or what toy you've taken away. That might work for the materialistic kid... but to the brainy geek kid, punishment is all about how boring their life becomes when they misbehave.

ily said...

Fabulously hilarious story to share. I have been there.