The other night we had nachos for dinner. I like nachos. Andy likes nachos. Nathan likes nachos--or at least he enjoys dipping chips in cheese sauce and dripping it everywhere...
Isaiah does not like nachos, and he expressed his displeasure by grabbing a handful and throwing them. Dadders told him no. We only throw balls, remember? And Isaiah got an evil glint in his eye, walked determinedly back over to my plate, and threw another handful.
This was a first. Many a time has he defiantly chosen to do what he wanted to do instead of what we wanted him to do. But this time, he really wasn't interested in throwing the chips, except in so far as it communicated his defiance. He chose disobedience for the sake of disobedience.
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7 comments:
Connor does that sort of thing fairly often. Generally, I can tell him to clean up his messes, but even then he'll throw whatever back into the bowl, drawer, etc. He's also perfected the look of death when we tell him to do something he doesn't want to do.
Why did you title the post "pears"? I'm failing to see the connection. :)
Isn't it sad when our perfect little infants get old enough to display their sin nature? I found it rather pleasant when I could just pretend that Jonathan didn't have one. ;)
Augustine, right? In his Confessions he writes that he stole unripe pears and threw them to pigs. It was a symbol of his corrupted self.
I do hope your wuggy was promptly disciplined. Do you spank?
Yup. Augustine. And Isaiah immediately got a swat on his diapered bottom and was relegated to the hallway for a time-out.
Do you have any input from your child development classes? This is something we're still trying to feel out.
I'm not sure who you were refering to in your question about input from child development classes, but maybe you meant me?
I haven't done a ton of study on it, but from what I've read and heard, it sounds like you did all the right things (Said "no", told him that only balls are for throwing, a little spank, and time out.) With my kids (since I'm not allowed to spank them, nor would I really want to since I don't have the life-commitment that I feel is needed for spanking), I always come talk to them at the end of their time out. I ask them what they did wrong and then if they are ready to come and behave. I have older kids, though, that are able to talk. With my baby that doesn't talk yet, I hold his hands for a slow count to ten as his time out. That way his intent to disobey is hindered and yet he isn't just distracted with some other activity.
I'm not sure that I learned any of that in my child development classes. A lot of it is just trying different things with different kids to see what works.
I thought I should add that I frequently comfort myself with the thought "My ineptitude in figuring out discipline will not have much of a lasting effect on these kids since my time with them is relatively small in the grand scheme of things."
So you, who actually mean "my children" when you say "my children" and not "someone else's children that I take care of every week and so have grown somewhat possessive of them", should consider me inexperienced in the realm of child rearing.
(I just realized the other day that the infants I watched when I first started babysitting are now teenagers. A frightening thought.)
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