So today, instead of raising my voice, I decided to relax and let things take their natural course. Instead of threatening the children with all manner of "toy jail" and lost privileges, I decided to take the Homer Simpson approach and "see where they're going with this." I listened to them every time they came into my room. I dealt with the concern calmly and sent them back to their room.
And to make it more enjoyable for myself, I wrote down what they said when they came in.
Beginning at 8:09pm (Each line represents a separate trip for them down the hall to my room)--
Asher: Mom, Ella [I could never figure out what he was saying] me 2 times.
Asher: Mom, Ella called me poopy.
Asher: Mom, Ella called me poopy. (again)
Asher: I pooped in my pull-up.
Asher: Ella tickled me. She's not giving me the robot car.
Asher: Mommy, Ella was going to get me.
Asher: Ella told me I'm poopy.
Ella: My tummy hurts.
Asher: Ella closed my room door and she locked it.
(From the hall I hear: You can open it little cry baby!)
Asher: Ella said to me I'm a buddy friend.
Ella & Asher: We both have tummy aches.
Ella: It's too hot, and I can't sleep.
That all took place over an hour. All in all not too bad. Maybe I should save my energy and just let them keep coming. It ends up taking about the same amount of time for me to fight with them to go to bed as it did tonight to just let them keep coming in and complaining about how they're calling each other poopy.
2 comments:
Well, he WAS poopy.
I'm going to try your method tomorrow night. Although, we have great success with staggered bedtimes.
ARGH~ I have got to try this (I need to try something).
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