Or another possible title for this post: Transitions and Discipline
Did you ever get the "5 minute warning" from your mom? How about the dreaded "I'm gonna count to 3... 1....2....3"? These are classic mom-tools to speed things along and get kids prepared for the 'next thing' (as in the 5 minute warning) or give the kids an opportunity to make a different choice (as in 1-2-3). Most moms start to use these tools in the toddler years, as they work on discipline, compliance, and smooth transitions.
Smooth transitions? Discipline? Compliance????? What are those?
And then, without knowing why, suddenly J-man is getting it. Don't ask me how. For some unknown reason, I started trying the 5-minute warning with him.
"J-man, we are going to speech in 5 minutes"
"Bath time in 5 minutes"
His response: Nothing. No acknowledgement of what I have said. And yet, when 5 minutes arrives, he seems more willing to do what I have requested. So somewhere in that noggin he is processing what I have said. Hmmm...
Then I thought "Why not try the mom-tool 1-2-3?"
So J-man stands on the table.... 1-2-3.... And he whines, cries, but often gets down. (Of course, he IS standing on the table... *sigh*)
In fact, he even will sass me back a little, completing my 1... 2... with his own eeee (three).
Is this progress? I think so... inchworm-like progress.
3 comments:
That's great! I love when those tools work!
That's another important one that I always forget...don't assume that you can't use some of the same disciplinary tricks on them as typical kids. I think they get it more than we sometimes give them credit for...
Oh, the dreaded "C" word. Compliance. We took Curt to a behaviorial psychologist at age 2 or 3. But $90 a hour is a lot of dinero to tell you one minute of time out for his age.
I've found consistance is key and it's damn hard to stay after it when you're old and tired like me.
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