Hoping for Magic
Well, yesterday was not my best parenting day. For the first time since I recorded Cole’s meltdown, he had another one – an epic one. He was swimming and squirting the adults with a water gun. I calmly asked him to stop squirting us, as it was chilly and we didn’t want to get wet. He did it again, so I told him to give me the gun or get out of the pool. After some struggle, I finally got the water gun. Some time passed and Cole began to argue with Reed and my nephew. This resulted in Cole hitting Reed, so I told Cole to get out of the pool for a time out. He refused. Reed helped get him to where I could reach him, so I pulled him out of the pool to sit out. As I was holding him there, he was yelling at me and spitting at me. Finally, he hit me, so I told him he had to go home. I wrestled him to the car and into his seat, which he promptly unbuckled. It took a while, but I finally got him to buckle in and started home with him yelling the entire way. How mean I was. To stop it. Yelling “annoying” over and over. I didn’t look at him and just kept driving. We got home. Thankfully, Chad relieved me and stayed home with Cole so I could go cool down. Cole took a nap and woke up in a much better mood. I, however, knew I needed to try something new.
Enter 1, 2, 3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan. This book was recommended by a dear friend after my video and post about Cole. While I promptly purchased the book, I didn’t immediately start reading it. Well, I began reading last night and started the counting portion this morning (that’s all the further I got so far). I explained the simple procedure to the kids and feel ready to start. Excited, really. The book promises results. The procedure is simple. I like that if I follow it, I will stop the yelling, over-explaining, and totally losing my cool (to put it mildly). I recognize these are not helpful practices and they are actually exacerbating the situation, that I need to change my actions every bit as much as Cole does, if not more so. This starts today. I’ll report back on our progress. As of now, I’m feeling hopeful. (And I’m hoping for some magic…)
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