No, Mom! Why would you do that?
Why would you make him do something by himself?
You know he’ll protest.
You know he’ll scream and cry.
First he will stomp his feet, and holler,
“I DON’T WANT TO!”
And you, Mom, will ignore him.
(Even though that has never worked!).
He will get even more mad because you, Mom, are not helping.
So he will scream louder.
He will bang his feet.
He will find something hard.
Maybe a broom.
Maybe a shoe.
Maybe that really breakable thing in the corner.
And he will start swinging.
Bang! The door.
Bang! The oven.
Bang! The floor.
And you, Mom will walk in and take away
the broom.
The shoe.
That really breakable thing that used to be in the corner.
Then he will scream LOUDER!
He will stand up and run in place while SCREAMING!
That’s when he will start throwing.
Could be a dish rag.
Could be a shoe.
But most likely, it’s that really breakable thing you put up on the counter.
And that Mom, is when you’ve had enough.
You walk in.
Pick him up,
(Or try because he has gone wet noodle by this point)
and you drag him, unwillingly,
to the corner,
to ‘sit’ in TIMEOUT.
And then, Mom, you leave him alone, again.
He grunts.
He growls.
He gets crazy ideas.
And while you, Mom, are not looking,
while he all of a sudden gets quiet, and stops
grunting and growling,
is when I end up here…
All rolled up.
At the top of the stairs.
Sure, now he’s quiet.
Now he’s sorry.
Now he’s ready to do what you asked twenty minutes ago.
But I’m stuck up here,
for the fourth time this week.
And I don’t think I did anything wrong.
Please tell me, Mom,
When does he turn four?!
Sincerely,
The Disgruntled Timeout Rug
PreachTeach: Blog by Erica 
Moo and Matty could be very best friends!! Perhaps we should arrange their marriage now? 🙂 Take heart friend… it’s a season, and it isn’t fun, and it might wear you out but you are doing amazing!!! You are loving him and teaching him. You are letting him figure it out. Soon he will be going on 6 and you will look at the same wild child and wonder, just for a teeny tiny moment, if you might kind of miss the passion that oozed out when they were upset. Don’t worry, that will pass, and a much more sophisticated fighter will emerge. And you’ll be up for that challenge too. Because these crazy people, our crazy little people – they get to do what we can’t do as adults. They get to take all of that emotion and lay it out there. So while it is exhausting because we want them to grow up and figure it out… really, it’s amazing. It means they feel so safe, and so loved, that they aren’t afraid to lay it out there. And that… while exhausting… means you are doing amazing! 🙂 If you ever want to swap stories… I remember the first time my daughter’s “I guess you don’t love or like me anymore” made me cry. Now I crack up just thinking about the different tactics she tried to use and yeah, I’m a little sad that the wild-hearted child is all Kindergartner now. Big and brave and doesn’t want me to help much any more – yet your posts take me back to the battles I thought I was going to never ever get on top of 🙂 Love you!
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Thanks for the encouragement. Exhausting… but incredibly amusing 🙂
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Amusing for sure! 🙂 PS – why does it say I posted at 8:07 p.m.? LOL
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