Monday Report

(sorry I have been remiss in my posting. We were out of town over the weekend and I am scheduled for 40 hours at the hospital this week- I will squeeze blogging in when I can!)

As I mentioned last week, I am reading "How to have a New Kid By Friday".

Mondays principle is this:

1. Say it once
2. turn around
3. Walk away

There is a lot more in the book, but obviously I can't copy the whole book down, so I will just briefly explain what I did.

We went to the Y on Monday morning and we were going to stop at 2 parks on the way home for 10 minutes each. Roman and Lincoln both were throwing a fit over me not letting them have candy. I calmly explained why they wouldn't be gettting out of the car at the park. I let Deacon go. There was much screaming. I ignored them.

When Deacon got back to the van, Roman wouldn't go back to his seat. Deacon was begging me to cave so that we could leave. I told him calmly to take it up with his brother, that the law would not allow me to drive with a child unbuckled. Then I preceded to calmly tell Deacon that it looked like we would be there awhile, so he may as well go out and play. Roman got into his seat in very short order.

We stopped at the next park. I explained to them that they still couldn't play because they were so direspectful at the last park. MOre screaming, but no refusal to stay in their seats.

We arrived home. Roman and Lincoln both gave me spontaneous hugs. We moved on with the day.

There were some smaller battles, but that was the big one.

I think I did pretty well throughout the day.

I didn't bribe.
I didn't make threats.
I didn't give warnings.
I only said things once.
I felt extremally calm.
Even when they were screaming.

All in all, it was a good start.