Tuesday, June 30, 2009

time out

We started implementing time out yesterday. When I said we, I meant I did. P was supposed to help me, and he did okay. I seriously think that our little 18 months old was a devil lately. He threw a tantrum only our parents have seen before. They'd like to say how we were just as bad when we were little, but there's no way anyone could be that bad. Having never to raise a devil, sorry I mean child before, we were ready to pull our hair out. Yesterday morning was the worst morning. He was very whinny and inconsolable. I said to myself, this has to stop. So I took him to the corner and sat him down. He was crying hysterically. At first he tried to get up, and I put him right back. I sat in the chair with my back to him. I made sure not to make eye contact. Couple times he tried to scooch away, I took one look at him, and he would scooch back to the corner with fear. Fear is a good thing in parenting. After 5 minutes of screaming and crying, we finally calmed down. I took him out of time out and he was good as new.
We had to do time out one more time yesterday afternoon. This time was longer and louder, because dad was home. Eli is very attached to his dad, so it was harder with dad sitting nearby. All in all, I think we did fine.