October 28, 2011

Toddlers & Discipline

Tuesday started out just like every day.  I woke up and thought to myself "today will be a good day".  I only work 4 days a week now {so that helps make getting out of bed at 6 a little more bearable} and I had a cute outfit laid out to wear.  Yes, it will be a good day.
And then I got out of the shower at 6:15 to hear a little voice over the monitor {as usual}.  Why on Earth does she feel that 6:15 is an acceptable wake up time?  Why?!  I make her lay in bed till 7 no matter what, I just wish she'd SLEEP till 7.  I feel like a bad mom making her lay in there wide awake but I need to shower, do my hair & makeup, get dressed, check my Twitter feed from the night, play a couple of games of Words With Friends, update the blog, let the dogs out, pack my lunch, pick up a little and THEN get her up.  I couldn't tell you the last time I drank a cup of cofee before it got cold and I had to microwave it.  Oh wait, it was Monday and it only happened because I woke up at 5:30 {half hour early}and sat in my bed, in the dark and drank it peacefully and hot.
Do you see where I'm going with this?  I'm about to lose my shit {thank you AP}. 
To top all that off, the icing on the cake that morning was in the 2.5 seconds it takes me to pull a shirt over my head she toddled her way over to Jimmy's night stand, eyeballing his still full glass of water from the night before, picked up said glass and started drinking it.  I only realized what was happening because I heard the water pouring all over the night stand.  When I {in slow motion} yelled, "nooooooooooooooooooooooooo" she took the cup {still full} and threw it at me.  Water was everywhere.  I was pissed.
The day before this, she took a remote and threw it at me and it hit me in the temple so hard I wanted to cry. For no reason too.  It's not like I said, "hey KP can you give mommy the remote?"  Nope.  She was just playing with it and then all the sudden thought, "mom's always saying I can't play with this!  I'll teach her!"
I so bad wanted to hit restart on that day.
So we're going to try time out.  I'm setting up the pack 'n' play in the spare bedroom and when she acts out she will sit in there for one minute.  One minute for every year.  That's the time out rule, right?
I don't want her associating her crib with time out so the pack n' play is a safe place for her to be.  She won't sit in a chair and she'd climb out of a laundry basket so this is my plan. 
We aren't spanking or smacking hands.  She's not only been throwing things lately but she's also been hitting.  So we are also teaching her that hitting is bad so spanking and smacking don't really instill that message.
So time out it is.  That's the plan anyway.
That still won't help with me getting her to sleep in, but one thing at a time, right?
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15 comments:

  1. feel your pain. we have trouble teaching a toddler at (almost) 13 months of age. he seems to understand what we are talking about but a lot of the times, either he pretends he doesnt understand or he's truly clueless.
    and while he's (almost) 13 months, he only slept thru the night TWICE!!! we are working on making him sleeping thru the night...one thing at a time..right?

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  2. Awwwww. Testing boundaries is such a fun stage. Oh but wait, not sure if "stage" is the right word 'cause they never grow out of it, LOL! It's more like an evolving stage. Time outs helped with my kids, and also trying really hard not to react much when they pull something like throwing a glass of water across the room. And not always practical, but making them help clean their mess up. I don't know if you've ever heard of Love and Logic parenting, but one of the things they teach is to be "sad, not mad." Easier said than done, but I've been trying.

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  3. Goodness, don't you just love toddlers?! This can be such a tough age. And you're right spanking or smacking won't send the message that hitting is bad! Timeout is a great first attempt at discipline.

    Sorry you had to deal with "that" type of day, no mom wants those. Where do you think we can get one of those restart buttons? We should all invest in them!

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  4. I know this scenario all too well. Cole went through this stage and we went out and bought a time out mat IMMEDIATELY. We didn't think he would stay put, but we just kept brining him back to it and eventually he learned. Time outs helped us out a lot and we leave the mat there just so he remembers that we will put him there if he misbehaves. Good luck!

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  5. totally feel your pain! disipline sucks! we do timeout and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and we head to tantrum town which sucks even worse! hang in there!

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  6. Don't feel like a bad mommy ... Eva stays in bed until 7 no matter what, too. This morning, she woke up around 6:10 and Mommy shut her door and put a pillow over her head. So, if you are a bad mom, I'm worse - at least you are using that time to be productive.

    I think we may need to start instilling time out, too. Oh so so fun. Remember when they were little squishy blobs that laid on our chest and couldn't move?

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  7. we're right there with you. Quinlin sees Owen get put in time outs...she actually sometimes puts herself in times outs just because. it's quite funny. she stands next to the wall, says "time out" and waits until you tell her she can come out. Then you tell her and she acts all relieved...uh, honey, you didnt do anything wrong. haha.

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  8. I'm right there with ya! Chloe is doing the same stuff. SO we are going to have to do something...I don't know what though. We don't have the room to keep the pack n' play set up. So I'll have to come up with something else.

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  9. please keep me posted on all of this. i need some help in this area too!

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  10. oh looks like you at this *awesome* time. And regarding the staying in bed till 7? my parents told my bro and I we weren't allowed out of our rooms till 8 on the weekends! it was great, we played :)

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  11. My daughter sits on the bottom step for her time-outs. (The steps to the 2nd floor are in our family room). These are my time-out rules: 1)1 minute for each year, 2)if she gets up from the step we start the timer all over again, 3) no one is allowed to talk to her while she is in time out. You don't have to buy anything special, they'll quickly learn where their special little spot is, lol! (some more quickly than others...).

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  12. O girl.. we are right there with ya.. Im getting so tired of the throwing food off the tray as a way to say Im done... and everytime I say "No" really loudly to somethign she is doing.. she laughs at me.. your kidding me right????? So time outs have commenced here too.

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  13. We tried time out yesterday, and he LAUGHED at me! He was so mad and throwing a fit, but laughing at the same time. I never knew that was possible? I can tell that this discipline this will not be easy...

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  14. honey we are right there with you. i have no clue what i'm doing one day from the next. she's totally kicking my butt on this front. we're trying time out but so far it just pisses her off more. good times... good luck!

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  15. Oh man. I can't handle the throwing things. My boyfriend has a 4 year old who I love getting to spend time with but when he starts the fits and throwing. He does time out too.

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