been2marceline
Fish are Food, not Friends!
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2006
- Messages
- 3,201
I feel really sad about doing it. He told me, "It's OK mom because I still have my stuffed animals." Then in a bit of a snotty voice told me, "I can just play with them since my toys are gone." So I had to take all of those away too! That devastated him and he just cried and begged. It was really hard because he also sleeps with tons of animals too. I almost cried because he looked so pathetic and small when I left him in his empty bed with nothing but his one bear that goes everywhere. I could never take him away because that's his comfort. Just hearbreaking to have to do this, but I really hope he remembers this.When we were reading his bedtime book in bed, he kept reaching for other animals to cuddle with, but there were none. He finally said, "I don't like this anymore. Can't I just have all my stuff back tomorrow?" I had to remind him, "No, if you have good behavior all day tomorrow, you get to pick ONE item to get back." He told me, "But if I only have one toy, I'll still be bored."
Yup...better work hard every day to behave and more will come. I'm wondering if he'll choose a toy or an animal tomorrow. I'm sort of thinking I should let him pick one toy and one animal because the animals are really just his comfort for sleeping...he doesn't actually play with them.
We had to go to Walmart tonight and when we got home, our living room and his bedroom looked so pathetic. Looks like kiddy jail. I feel like the meanest mom in the world.![]()
Holly,
I'm sure you know that you are NOT the meanest mom in the world. As we all have noticed and mentioned, you are one of the BEST moms in the world.
It is SO important to follow through with what we say that we will do when we tell a child that their actions will suffer consequences. It's the parents that don't follow through that develop children that do not have bounderies and are "out of control". These children are constantly pushing the envelope to see how far they can go and are usually the children that people don't want to be around.
You are doing a great job! Don't ever be too hard on yourself. He will learn from this and he will respect you and your WORD because you followed through on this with him.
Just my thoughts, as Noel would say! (Love her thoughts, by the way!)
Karen