Cruel or hysterical parenting?....

[back2backboys]

In regards to my earlier post, Murphy's Law, when our boys were put to bed directly after dinner there was the usual opening and closing of doors combined with "come in here, no you come in here."

Time outs have been decreasing, thank god, and I think that a time out during bedtime is not exactly discipline. It's more of a bedtime delay.

However, my partner was traveling and I was hitting the point of giddy exhaustion. They are both TERRIFIED of our security alarm, so I came up with what I think is the brilliant idea of telling them that I was setting the alarm and if they opened their door it would go off. Obviously this isn't possible, the motion sensors are only on the first floor and their bedrooms are on the second floor. But I wanted them to hear the beeping of the alarm being set, so I set the alarm and then turned it back off....so I thought. A-man opens his door at the exact time that our dog jumps on the sofa and sets the alarm off.

Screaming, crying, snot, tears the whole nine yards, but I decided to let it go for at least 5 seconds. A lifetime to them, and an amazing sense of satisfaction for me! I turn it off and head upstairs to calm everyone down. Then make it clear that it was bedtime and that the door games were to be stopped immediately. Not another peep out of either of them. An early bath night, early dinner and early bedtime for me is never a bad thing, and not one ounce of guilt!

Now....does this take the place of teaching them that when we say bedtime, we mean bedtime? NO, but it was damn creative and damn funny, a laugh that I really needed after a trying toddler afternoon.

Telling my partner was the most fun of all. As usual we were laughing our asses off!

We have funny and creative boys, we get to be funny and we will all be funny together as they get older....sometimes we are the clown family that came to town.

Those were some creative "Mommy Pants" that night, if I do say so myself!

© Wynona Grandi All Rights Reserved.

[Linda Shapiro]

Certainly gave me a chuckle. You score a 10 for creativity.