From the mouths of babes

Now that we are officially in the midst of the terrible twos we have had to introduce discipline. We have chosen to start with time outs and so far they seem to be doing the trick. The first few times I think Lea was in shock that I would actually put her in the corner and she stayed there and talked to herself and what not. Then when they started happening more frequently she would become very upset and scream at the top of her lungs. I was never sure if our chosen method was working or if she even understood why. Until a few weeks ago.

Bee was on the day shift, and we were nearing the end of the day (and my patience level). Lea and Anna were playing together on the floor when Anna started to cry in pain. I immediately asked Lea why Anna was crying and she said “Lea bite Anna finger”. Of course I had to check for myself since a two year is really not the most reliable source of information and sure enough there was bite marks on Annas finger. I immediately put Lea in time out (no warning!) and she screamed and screamed. At one point she even went “beep beep” and I must admit that I almost died of laughter. You see, when she goes in time out, I use a timer to time the 2 minutes, and when it’s done, it goes beep beep. I guess she was trying to trick me lol… Too bad it didn’t work! So, when Bee got home he asked her what happened and she said “Lea time out for biting Anna finger, and not listening to Mommy” I was totally shocked that she could remember and tell him why she was in time out. It proved to me that the method was working and that she had learned that there was a consequence to her actions.

The last few weeks we have had to use time out more and more and of course become more consistent with it. The main reason she goes into time out is not listening to me or her Daddy. They always say that children are sponges and they take in everything we say, we learned this the last few days. The other day as we were driving to the library for story time, Lea was chastising her “baby” for not listening. She was saying “baby listen to mommy” over and over again. Those were my own words coming back to haunt me. One of the funniest things I have had to do was take her out of the bath tub for a time out the other night. She took a toy away from Anna and would not give it back, so I gave her a warning and she continued to ignore me so I pulled her out, soaking wet and naked and made her stand in the corner of the bathroom, dripping all over the floor. She was so angry, and screamed the entire time. I went right back to bathing Anna and did my best to ignore her. I don’t think she ever thought I would take her out of the tub! What a shock for her. But, they say consistency is key, and I am determined to be consistent.

Then, to top it all off, today she put her dolly in time out, held her up against the wall and everything. She even said “dolly time out, two minutes”. I was stunned. I wish I could describe how this made me feel. Part of me was proud that she has learned what we are trying to teach her and that she was putting it into practice in her play. The other part of me was sad that she would learn punishment and play it with her dollys. It feels like my innocent child has learned something bad or dirty. I can’t really find the words to explain how I feel. Hopefully some of you other mothers will be able to relate. When did my daughter grow up so much?