Parenting…day 3

Just a little update on how the ‘problem child’ solving is going…I’m reading a book and so is my hubby. I’ve made it to chapter 4 (I’m not a good reader), but have learned a few good tricks so far. Turns out saying please is one of the keys to success and the sure overkill of niceness/positive reinforcement in the beginning. I will be trying this out when we all get home from school/work. I did start out the morning by asking the boys to ‘Please get out of bed so we can start this beautiful day’. Seemed to work; they were both in good moods. I was high fiving myself for getting them out of bed. But sure enough the dreaded morning tantrum came (out of no where) with ‘the problem child”. He already had breakfast and we had 15 minutes to spare in which he needed to brush his teeth, get his shoes on and get his jacket on. I asked him nicely to, “After you are done with breakfast, PLEASE go brush your teeth and get your shoes on.” Problem child asked, “Can I have cereal now?” in which I promptly responded nicely, “No, buddy. You just finished breakfast and it’s time to brush your teeth and get your shoes on.” Tick tick tick, BOOM. And he’s screaming and yelling about having cereal. AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Really? Hubby jumped in and distracted him and we got the morning routine finished and we were out the door, peacefully, driving to daycare. Yesterday we had an episode trying to get problem child out of the car. My heart panicked as I stopped the car, opened the door for oldest son to get out and unbuckled the little one out of the car seat. No problems with problem child getting out of the car this morning, so I remembered my book advice and told him, “Good job bud for getting out of the car so nicely this morning.” Woo hoo…he was happy about that. BUT, yes…there is always a BUT it seems. Oldest son said to me, “What’s so great about getting out of the car?” And boom…I feel like crap again. So not only do I have to deal with problem child, I have to work this parenting magic on my oldest son who I thought was pretty well-behaved. WRONG-O! getting them into daycare was just fine after that; no eruptions or meanness.

It’s a good thing that I have about 30 minutes to drive to work after dropping off my kids. This is ‘MY’ time-no kids, no work, no hubby, NO ONE ELSE BUT ME. I cherish my hour a day that I have in the car where it’s peaceful and quiet. My mind wanders all over the place for these 2-30 minute drives each day and I wish I could blog while I was driving. Today I thought to myself, boy, I really wish my 6-year-old would just grow up and we wouldn’t have to deal with these problems. But then I immediately thought, that was selfish, why would I want that? I WANT to be able to enjoy my 6 year old’s six-year oldness. I want to enjoy my 8 year old’s, eight year oldness. I WANT to ENJOY my kids NOW; not later (well later too but you get what I’m saying). Back to the books I go tonight to conquer this quest of mine!