Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Discipline, time outs and following through

There is something to be said about having your children close in age. The boys are 2 1/2 years apart and while disciplining them may not have always been easy it came natural. I was so used to following through and time outs with Bryce because I was still being challenged daily with Noah. Somedays it seemed like someone was ALWAYS in time out or that every minute and every breath was used to repeat what you just said. I learned the art of 2nd chances, when to let things go and I was pretty awesome at picking my battles. There were nights when nothing would help but Daddy and a good bottle of wine and there were nights when you just needed to cry in defeat. But it was all worth it because I think we raised two pretty awesome little guys!

Then almost 4 years later came Chloe. This little adorable toddler we have gets away with murder around here! No really she does. Partly because her Dad and Brothers think everything she does is adorable and laugh their heads off. Yes even her Dad! But mostly because I am lazy at home and do not do very much discipline or time outs with her and forgot following through on anything I say, she knows I am not going to at this point and THAT'S a problem. I noticed this at the dinner table last week, she rules the table. Sings songs, plays with her food, puts her feet on the back of the chair making a plank with the table and chair as her prop, she yells over the boys talking, bangs her fork on the plate and just gets down when she wants. No joke its out of control. Then I started to noticed she just yells and gets her way, takes things from her brothers (which they totally let her), and is super impatient.

So today we are turning over a new leaf. I/We will take more time to follow through and put her in time outs. We will start to teach her discipline and what is right and wrong. She may only be 2 but I know she understands. We must start this now because this Summer is coming and fast and with an out of control toddler there will be NO fun.

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