A nice compliment
The other day I mentioned Logan's massive temper tantrum while we were at the farm. He was throwing sand after being told not to. I put him on time out & he wouldn't sit & listen, screaming & crying hysterically. Finally, after telling him if he didn't straighten up we would be leaving early - we did. We were there with a few other moms from the club, including one mom's in-laws. Logan got to show his "special" side to everyone, but we still went through the discipline drill as if we were at home.
We went to playgroup at the park yesterday morning. The mom who brought her in-laws to the farm was there & we were talking as the kids played. "My mother-in-law was really impressed with you yesterday", she told me. "Impressed with what? That I didn't beat the living snot out of Logan right there on the spot?", I said half jokingly. "No", she laughed. "Impressed that you followed through with everything you said. From time-out to leaving early. Most moms don't stick to their guns like that".
I thought that was a nice compliment. In the midst of public tantrums like this, mothers, especially me, feel like the eyes of the world are on them with glares wreaking of judgment. It's not a fun position to be in & all you want is for your kid to just stop & behave like a civilized person. To know that in reality, there are people watching & impressed with the discipline techniques - from a mother-in-law no less, really makes me feel a little bit less frazzled.
Too bad my own mother-in-law would rather make fun of my parenting skills rather than complimenting them*.
*More detail on what happened here later*
Our Roots
- Kristin
- Colorado
- I married my soul mate 10 years ago. We got married very young & we are very thankful that we did despite what other opinions may have been. It gave us a chance to grow up together & learn how to ride life's roller coaster ups & downs as a team. We had some good friends & adventures in Vegas when we started out. Then we hit a fork in the road & moved to Portland, OR so I could go to school & pursue a career in chiropractic. That's where we learned that sometimes life has plans for us other than our "perfectly mapped out" one. Bill got a promotion that moved us out to Colorado, somewhere he's always wanted to live, but a place where my thoughts of chiropractic school would die. Marriage is all about compromise, so we made the move to bigger & better things. As we continued to be successful at work, it felt like there was something missing. That's when I started to think about having a baby. As a stay at home mom to Logan, life was everything we wanted it to be. Then we were crazy enough to do it again & soon added Carter to the family. This is our adventure raising two boys in the Rocky Mountains.
Branches
6 comments:
The friend's MIL is right. If kids even have the slightest suspicion that you won't follow through, it's all over. Logan will very soon understand that you mean what you say. It's not easy, but it's so important. Good for you!
Yay for you! Seriously, mucho kudos there.
I've learned that is one of the most important things, follow through!
Good job
That is great! It's too bad more people in the world don't speak up with compliments like that! I try to do the same thing you did and follow through with the whole discipline routine...it's hard when you have people staring at you like you're horrible or your kid is horrible and it's even harder when I have my mom with me because she always acts so embarrassed and tells me to just let her be, don't discipline her like that in public etc. etc.
Awesome job! I used to teach a parenting class at work and this was one of the biggest aspects of my class. If I was still doing the class I would use you as an example. So many people refuse to do this because they think people are looking at them thinking what horrible parents they are when, in actuallity, people are looking at them and remembering when they were in the exact same situation with their own children. Kudos!
Good for you! I am trying, I really am. It's so hard to leave early and what not when we are somewhere I want to be, like Target. I am trying and I know they only way we are going to get the best outcome is to follow through. And I would love to have people think that of me rather then "if that were my kid i would have already spanked their tale!".
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