Shawn and I had a rare occurrence tonight! We were able to have a candlelight dinner while the kids were home! Let me just share the story...
As I was preparing dinner the girls were playing Candyland. I told them that they needed to pick the game up and put it away before dinner or they would not eat with us. It was like I was speaking German or something because the request went in one ear and out the other. (this happens a lot!) Anyway...I continued to make dinner without reminding them 1500 times to pick the game up. I honestly was surprised that I had enough self-control to do that. Only the Holy Spirit baby! Their current way to play is to pretend they are cats. They crawl around on the floor and make the most annoying meow sound. This is another reason I will NEVER get a cat.
I made some REALLY good Ciabatta sandwiches for Shawn and I as well as some Tortilla Soup. When it was ready, we told the girls to go sit on their beds. Still oblivious to the consequence, they went to their beds. We sat down to candlelight, our yummy food, and jazz music in the background. The girls continued to act likes cats and be silly. It took about 5 minutes for Adrianna to realize what was happening and she asked "Can we eat with you guys?".
This may sound harsh but we ignored them and even shut their door. It was nice to get that brief reprieve of romance in our busy day!
After we were finished we went in and we asked the girls why they didn't get to eat with us. Adrianna immediately said "Because we didn't clean up the game". So they do hear, and they do know! We had them eat separately and told them we were very sad that they didn't get to eat with us. So next time they should choose to obey the first time. (Oh yeah, and they still had to clean up the game)
It was so great to have no stress, no frustration in discipline. It doesn't happen all the time, but for this once it was awesome!
So now, every time I tell Eliza to do something or that she can't do something...she will look at me and say " I'm frustrated!". Yeah me too honey..:)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Way to go Becky!!! I love how you handled that. REally ingenious idea. Be very interesting to see what happens next time the girls are told to do something. You and Shawn are such good parents, I would never have the patience. Great job!!!!
YEAH!!! and oh man do I know how hard it is to NOT remind them a million times about the consequences! You're right- they DO hear and understand!!!
Way ta go! We'll see how picking up goes next time! ;)
Wow Amber must have really wanted you to read her comment! LOL It showed up 3 times!
Way to go! It must have been so hard but hey, you have to do what works for them!
You're molding them... as God molds us each day to be more like Him! Have a blessed day!
Babe! That certainly was clever! You had much more patience and tenacity than I did...thanks for thinking of it! I love you!
Post a Comment