Discipline and Punishment ...Funny little things.
Both meant to teach our children (and/or adults) order and keep them on the right path.
So here is where I am having an issue.
Poppins, "You are being naughty, you need to please go sit on your bed right now."
Child, "I don't want to go sit on my bed."
Poppins, "I'm sorry you feel that way, but I wasn't asking, I was telling." (The only time in my life where telling is ok...sorry....writer joke)
Child, "But I want to watch TV."
Poppins, "And I want a million dollars, you don't see me getting my way. Now go sit on your bed."
Child, "But that's boring."
Poppins, "Exactly"
Child, "But....."
And so on and so forth until eventually ... you know what comes next ...
Tears
Screaming
Fits
Meltdowns
You know ... the kind that comes shrill cries and screams of "I don't want to!!!" and "You always make me sit on my bed!!" and all sorts of other things that are not true but still make the hairs on your back stick straight up.
In the mean time you are thinking...
Chocolate
Sunny Beaches
Happy Places
Patrick Dempsey... I mean Peaceful Serenity
And all this happens in about 1.3 minutes but feels like 12.9 hours.
This is how punishment and discipline happens in my house. Fortunately we were graced with a particularly difficult child and no matter what the punishment, the battle of wills rages on before it is ever carried out.
I love it...I love setting up consequences that punish me more than my children.
I'm not really complaining a whole lot but mostly just laughing at how torturous lovely parenthood is. Its just been one of those weeks over here in the Poppins household. Me of all my forceful and cruel tactics of making my child sit on his bed or pick up his room. I'm practically the meanest parent alive!
Do you ever find yourself the one being punished in the midst of discipline?
16 comments:
indeed...the meanest parent alive {well next to me--I did make her take a bath last night--the NERVE OF ME!!}
:)
IDK I might have to call CPS on that one...making her take a bath! That's down right cruel! LOL
;)
I hate disciplining, but I also hate whiny kids who always get their way... I try to strike a happy medium.
YES.
I keep telling myself that the more I lay down the law now (kindly, of course), the better things will be later. Heh.
Times like these were much harder on me than on them. I knew I was doing the right thing, but it was an agony.
Natalie...I'd love a happy medium ... but I've yet to find that. LOL
Jessica...I hope things get better later. Actually my daughter for the most part is perfectly behaved (despite a poor memory when it comes to chores and a super chatty chatter box) Hopefully her brothers will follow in her footsteps!
Cassandra ... Nice to see you on my blog! Agony is a perfect word to describe it!
You crack me up! I love your obsession with Patrick. I dont have kids so I can't give any advice. But thanks for the chuckle. ;)
every. single. time.
It took my mother quite a while to figure out that sending me to my room . . . wasn't a bad thing. I'd just read. I was perfectly content.
Oh, but was mother perfectly content? No. She figured out my clever ploy and always made me sit at the kitchen table from that point on . . . without a book in sight. Oh, the cruel memories of childhood . . . and fodder for my next book.
Do you realize that out of all my siblings, I was the only one who didn't join the Indian Guides or Cub Scouts. My brother did. My sisters were in Blue Birds and Girl Scouts. But I, the youngest and most favorite child of all, did none of that. I'm going to have to have a serious talk with my mother about my deprived childhood.
Great, MaryBeth, see what you did with your post about discipline? You brought back traumatic childhood memories. Great. Fine. Dandy. I need a massive glass of wine now.
S
This is SO true! While Brogan isn't old enough yet to really get into that with him, had plenty of experience with my 5th graders. Discipline is an on-going battle.
You need to watch Super Nanny, and YES, I find myself doing that too.
Key is less talk, which is SO SO SO hard for me.
So now I just pick them up, sit them in a corner (super nanny says no bed... for the little ones I agree) and say, "SIT"
If they get up, I put them back, and say, "SIT"
And so on and so forth. Eventually they get tired of it, and sit, and scream and cry. But I just let them sit. When the stop crying, I come and get them up.
Now, when I say, "Sit" they do it.
Hmmm... does this mean I'm treating them like a dog?
Now I'm worried....
That was pretty much how my day went.
"Please sit on the couch."
"I don't want to sit on the couch, I want to lay in bed"
"No I can't see you if you are on your bed"
"You're so mean"
"Yes I am"
and crying
and crying
and the entire time I was silently writing this post. LOL
I have an entire classroom full of kids I have to attempt to discipline. Great fun, I tell ya. "You're so mean" YES, yes I am....the nerve of me attempting to educate you so that you can have a better life when you're out of school The nerve!!
sometimes I wonder who is the one being disciplined,the child or the adult? lol I really like your blog :)
I'm glad we are all on the same page!
Thanks Smileyfreak! Happy to have you visiting my blog :)
Post a Comment