I have a flexible job that allows me to drive my children to and from school. So on a normal weekday my schedule looks like this...
7am wake up, get everyone else up and get ready for school/babysitter/work
8am leave house (sometimes this is 8:20am)
8:10 drop Molly off at babysitters house
8:30 drop Alivia and Marlin off at preschool
8:45 get home start working
11:15 leave house to pick up children from school
11:30 pick up children
Noon back at house, start working again
5-5:15 Matt and children get home and work ends
This is actually only about 7 hours of work so I also have to work evenings for an average of 5 hours a week after the kids are in bed.
It sounds like a lot of interruptions and hassles but it is worth it. I consider myself very lucky to be working full time and still have the opportunity to touch base with my kids in the middle of the day. We skip from school back to the car, sometimes we sing songs on the way to the babysitters, sometimes I get stories about what happened at school. I love it. I love them and I feel a little less mom guilt because I can do these things.
It is all worth it...
Except for days like today. Today I picked the kids up and as soon as we got in the van Alivia started demanding that I dump all the Gatorades out of the box they come in so she can have a nest for her stuffed puppy for the ride. I didn't want 20 Gatorade bottles rolling allover the van so I said no. She continued to fling attitude from the back seat the entire ride and her fit ended in her taking the cordless headphones and throwing them to the floor of the van as hard as she could. I told her that her behavior was unacceptable and I was taking her stuffed puppy away from her and she could have it back tomorrow morning IF she could straighten up and be nice for the rest of the day.
****TOTAL MELTDOWN***
...crying
...begging
and I turn into the babysitters driveway. Open the door, help the kids out (Alivia still crying), take them into the house, apologize to the babysitter about the crying child and explain what the situation is and leave.
Lovely, what the hell am I doing this for? Why did I bother? Did I really interrupt my day to go make Alivia scream and cry? ugh
So on 9 out of 10 days the shuttling is totally worth the effort. Today was not one of those days.
Showing posts with label discipline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discipline. Show all posts
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
MINE
Last night I was tucking Marlin into his bed and Alivia came in and announced that the glow worm that he had was hers. They argued and I showed her that it was indeed his and made her give it back to him. We couldn't find Alivia's glow worm anywhere. I'm pretty sure dreams of glow worm envy danced in her head all night because this morning...
I went upstairs with Molly to find clothes for her and when I came back down the stairs Marlin was screaming and chasing Alivia. Alivia was running around the house with Marlin's glow worm in her arm. She was holding it as high as possible in case Marlin actually caught up with her to ensure he wouldn't be able to reach it. She jumped up on the chair, he got close, then she jumped down and ran to the couch, Marlin go close again and off she went. It was a two person game of keep away and my sweet Marlin was losing miserably so I stepped in.
"STOP! give me the glow worm." She hands it to me and prepares to be sent to the corner as usual for her time out (well worth the pleasure of 1.5 minutes torturing her younger brother)
"Here Marlin" I handed him the glow worm. Then I turned to Alivia "and you go to the..." I could see in her face that she was ready, it didn't matter and she would do it again. The time out was not going to be sufficient. So instead, I turned to Marlin, "here is what we are going to do."
Alivia came over to check out what my next move would be. "Alivia, I am tired of you taking Marlin's things from him so he is going to pick one of your toys from your room and he gets to keep it for two days."
I led Marlin into Alivia's room and it took him .00007 nano seconds to make a beeline for her stuffed horse that has a pink purse it fits into with a saddle, a bridle and a brush. He picked it up and I led him into his room and said "you get to keep the horse until tomorrow."
Alivia screamed, she jumped up and down, it was unbearable (and perfect) that Marlin could have her horse. She made several attempts to go into his room to reclaim her possession in her fit of rage but I didn't let her. There is a door between their bedroom and I saw her start to sneak through there and I went in the other door saying "you are going to be in big trouble!" She backed away. I looked at Marlin. He was sitting on his bed with the horse out of the purse slowly combing its long mane with a tiny little grin on his sweet little face. It was priceless.
After the rage passed the bargaining began. "I won't take Marlins things any more."
I responded, "Great, you can have your horse back tomorrow."
Aliva: "Please can I have it back now."
I told her that this was a lesson she had to learn because it didn't feel good when people take your things. She finally calmed down and went into her room to get dressed. (because this is all happening before 8am...the things I do before my first cup of coffee)
I heard her sincerely tell Marlin that she was sorry. Then Marlin said "ok, Wivia, here is your horse." I heard him give it back to her piece by piece and then he said "I sorry I took your horse Wivia" (insert: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW)
Oh my gosh! Can that get any sweeter?
I went upstairs with Molly to find clothes for her and when I came back down the stairs Marlin was screaming and chasing Alivia. Alivia was running around the house with Marlin's glow worm in her arm. She was holding it as high as possible in case Marlin actually caught up with her to ensure he wouldn't be able to reach it. She jumped up on the chair, he got close, then she jumped down and ran to the couch, Marlin go close again and off she went. It was a two person game of keep away and my sweet Marlin was losing miserably so I stepped in.
"STOP! give me the glow worm." She hands it to me and prepares to be sent to the corner as usual for her time out (well worth the pleasure of 1.5 minutes torturing her younger brother)
"Here Marlin" I handed him the glow worm. Then I turned to Alivia "and you go to the..." I could see in her face that she was ready, it didn't matter and she would do it again. The time out was not going to be sufficient. So instead, I turned to Marlin, "here is what we are going to do."
Alivia came over to check out what my next move would be. "Alivia, I am tired of you taking Marlin's things from him so he is going to pick one of your toys from your room and he gets to keep it for two days."
I led Marlin into Alivia's room and it took him .00007 nano seconds to make a beeline for her stuffed horse that has a pink purse it fits into with a saddle, a bridle and a brush. He picked it up and I led him into his room and said "you get to keep the horse until tomorrow."
Alivia screamed, she jumped up and down, it was unbearable (and perfect) that Marlin could have her horse. She made several attempts to go into his room to reclaim her possession in her fit of rage but I didn't let her. There is a door between their bedroom and I saw her start to sneak through there and I went in the other door saying "you are going to be in big trouble!" She backed away. I looked at Marlin. He was sitting on his bed with the horse out of the purse slowly combing its long mane with a tiny little grin on his sweet little face. It was priceless.
After the rage passed the bargaining began. "I won't take Marlins things any more."
I responded, "Great, you can have your horse back tomorrow."
Aliva: "Please can I have it back now."
I told her that this was a lesson she had to learn because it didn't feel good when people take your things. She finally calmed down and went into her room to get dressed. (because this is all happening before 8am...the things I do before my first cup of coffee)
I heard her sincerely tell Marlin that she was sorry. Then Marlin said "ok, Wivia, here is your horse." I heard him give it back to her piece by piece and then he said "I sorry I took your horse Wivia" (insert: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW)
Oh my gosh! Can that get any sweeter?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Kiss the Corner
Before I was a parent I knew exactly how to raise a child. "Consistency is the key," I said many times as I looked down my nose at various mothers letting their kids get away with murder because they were too busy to be consistent. Then I had Alivia Rose.
Alivia is so sharp and so quick, she always has me hopping. She forces me into corners where I must decide if she has crossed the line with her most recent action or if that is not worth giving her a time out. Sometimes it is barely unacceptable and I don't want to make her take a 4 minute time out. So we have a punishment that is like a mini time out. It is called "kiss the corner." When her attitude is pushing the boarder of inappropriate I say "kiss the corner" and she has to go to kiss the corner where she does her time outs and then she can come back. As long as she does it without any fight or yelling and she comes back with a good attitude then that is all she has to do. It is a nice way to easily and quickly adjust her attitude.
Alivia is so sharp and so quick, she always has me hopping. She forces me into corners where I must decide if she has crossed the line with her most recent action or if that is not worth giving her a time out. Sometimes it is barely unacceptable and I don't want to make her take a 4 minute time out. So we have a punishment that is like a mini time out. It is called "kiss the corner." When her attitude is pushing the boarder of inappropriate I say "kiss the corner" and she has to go to kiss the corner where she does her time outs and then she can come back. As long as she does it without any fight or yelling and she comes back with a good attitude then that is all she has to do. It is a nice way to easily and quickly adjust her attitude.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Spitting
Here is a story from a year ago...
When Marlin was about 14 months old he went through a stage where he was spitting on everything. He spit on people, chairs and anything else that he thought it might be interesting to see spit on. One day he was spitting on me so I sent him to time out so he could stop spitting. I was doing several other things at the time also. I checked on him in the corner and he had a teddy bear with him in the corner. He looked at me like he knew he was getting away with something (I don't allow toys in time out) but I had too many things going on to deal with that so I decided to not notice the teddy bear. When the timer ended and he came out of the corner he brought the teddy bear to me. I looked at him and said "yes marlin I see the teddy bear" He continued to follow me around and hold the teddy bear up. When I took a better look I noticed that the teddy bear was soaking wet. He had been sitting in time out (for spitting) spitting on his teddy bear. He must have spit 50 times to get that bear that wet. What a little bugger.
When Marlin was about 14 months old he went through a stage where he was spitting on everything. He spit on people, chairs and anything else that he thought it might be interesting to see spit on. One day he was spitting on me so I sent him to time out so he could stop spitting. I was doing several other things at the time also. I checked on him in the corner and he had a teddy bear with him in the corner. He looked at me like he knew he was getting away with something (I don't allow toys in time out) but I had too many things going on to deal with that so I decided to not notice the teddy bear. When the timer ended and he came out of the corner he brought the teddy bear to me. I looked at him and said "yes marlin I see the teddy bear" He continued to follow me around and hold the teddy bear up. When I took a better look I noticed that the teddy bear was soaking wet. He had been sitting in time out (for spitting) spitting on his teddy bear. He must have spit 50 times to get that bear that wet. What a little bugger.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
