
After a really rough incident between my father and my son this summer, I vowed to never, ever physically discipline my kids again. And as much as I could help it, not yell, either. So far so good, but it's hard.Last night, at bedtime, was a possible disciplining moment. My husband had friends over, so I was getting the kids to bed on my own. They agreed on a book, which was a 5 Minute Marvel Stories book, so that meant they had to agree further on WHICH story out of the book we'd read.We were in my son's (5) bed, and I was holding up the book for them to pick which superhero they wanted me to read. My son said Ant Man - which wasn't even an option - and so I asked my SD (6) what her choice would be. She chose Spider Man. So I picked Spider Man since it actually WAS an option.Well, my son didn't like that. He started making angry faces and shouting, so I explained that we couldn't read Ant Man because it didn't exist, so we're reading Spider Man, and if he wanted to be a part of story time, he'd need to stop shouting and be respectful. He did not. So I gave him one final warning that if he couldn't calm down, we'd leave and I'd read the story only to my SD. Again, he did not calm down.So my SD and I moved to her bed. I started reading to her. My son started screaming at the top of his lungs.So I moved us out of the bedroom and into the playroom and shut the door. My son continued screaming at the top of his lungs. I continued to ignore it and keep reading to SD.After a while, my son came out and started knocking on the door. I opened it and looked at him, and he started smiling. I explained to him that screaming was not an appropriate thing to do and because of his behavior he would not be getting a story tonight and he needed to go back to bed.So he angrily ran back to his bed and continued screaming.SD and I finished up our story, and we went back into the bedroom to get tucked in. My son had calmed down and was lying on the floor. I tucked in my SD and gave her a kiss on the cheek, thanked her for her good behavior, and asked my son to get in bed. He just said 'no' and continued to lay there.I asked if he was going to sleep on the floor, and he said yes. So I said okay, you can stay there, but you need to leave your sister alone. He asked for pillows and blanket and I refused, saying if he wanted them he'd have to get in bed.I said goodnight to him, turned off the lights, and walked away.About 15 minutes later he came out of the room to go potty, and stopped to give me a hug. I asked if he understood why he didn't get a story and he said 'yes, because I was yelling'. I agreed, and continued to say that it was very disrespectful, but I hope that tomorrow he won't yell so we could read together. I told him I loved him, and he said he was ready to get in bed, so I tucked him in and gave him a kiss.I feel like the screaming was an attention-seeking tantrum, which is why I ignored it, and I feel his desire to sleep on the floor was another form of attention-seeking...mischief...so that's why I ignored that as well. I wanted him to see that his sister was being rewarded for good behavior, while not blatantly disciplining him. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if it worked. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2JsRAhs
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