He had just woken from his nap and was sensitive as I assume most kids are upon waking. I told him that if he wanted he could paint while I sorted laundry, but asked him to wait patiently while I finished a different task in the meantime.
He took that hard and when I asked him to sit and take a break while I finished he lost his composure, so I put him on a time out.
Things escalated to him chanting, "I want to paint!" again and again from time out and sitting for 6 minutes instead of 2, but ultimately he settled and we were able to discuss what happened.
I told him I understood he was upset and knew that he really wanted to paint but that we had used up painting time and so we were not going to paint.
He whimpered and said, "sorry mama I be a nice boy. Please let me paint." I looked him in the eye, said, "you are a nice boy, but we are not painting today."
I tried to be very concise but wanted to get my point across, so I added, "I asked you to be patient and you chose not to be, so now we have to move on and try harder next time. Ok?"
He hugged me and cried really hard, but said "ok."
I kissed his cheek, told him I loved him and then asked him to help me clean up before dinner. He happily complied and the rest of the night was pretty awesome.
(Cleaning his mirrored doors - among other things)
I so badly wanted to let him paint when he apologized so remorsefully, but I had to let him know I was firm on the expectations.
He is only 2 (closer to 3 now), but he is capable of meeting the expectations we have set for him. Sometimes its harder than other times for him to meet them, but they're always the same and we will always encourage him to do better the next time.
After going through that episode with Mac today it made me wonder if I'll have the stamina with Adrian and baby girl.
I guess we'll see...
No comments:
Post a Comment