I'm so sorry ita.

But Kat, great news that Grace is walking! It's just YAY!

Besides, you can always bring the willful ones to heel with lots of timeouts when it's necessary. Sometimes.

You can? I find that so far nothing has really penetrated with my younger one. Speaking of, he's starting to get into fights with his friends at school. He came home today covered in scratches. Oy.

~ma for you and your family, ita.

Oh Hec, I just read Emmett's essay. It is absolutely wonderful, really really sweet. I love his description of Mathilda's eyes.

You can?

I don't know. I only know what worked with Emmett. But he did get at least one, sometimes two awful, screechy, meltdown timeouts a day when he was 2 and 3 years old. I mean, and I gave him timeouts for bad attitude too, though most of them were for fairly egregious tantrumy behavior.

I gave Matilda a timeout today and it was the first time in a month and a half. That's not what it was like with Emmett at the same age. He was exhausting.

Seriously, I'm no expert. I only know my kids. But I did have to find a consequence that was powerful enough to make him unhappy and make the behavior mod work. And I am not by inclination a strict disciplinarian.

But he was just pushing all the time against boundaries that he knew were there. So I'd look for reasons to drop the hammer when I had a controlled situation. Anyway, that was a couple of unfun years of my life.

On the plus side, he's pretty great now.

Face it, Gud, jinxing the Royals is just not all that tough.

That is a lovely essay from Emmett. Brought a tear to my eye.

Yay Grace on the walking!

I have called in the big guns. My mother is coming to help me sew. I have to clean my apartment, because she is getting a ride on Friday, and she may be able to stay until Sunday. This is a lifesaver.

I'm just joking Hec. I am not truly concerned about Isaac's behavior, but I do notice time outs and toys taken away for misbehavior don't seem to have any long term effect on him. Sure he changes his behavior in the short run, but the next time he's out of sorts he's right back at it.

but I do notice time outs and toys taken away for misbehavior don't seem to have any long term effect on him.

That's the thing. Some kids take timeouts to heart, and others will sit there with a bemused look on their face and raise an eyebrow and say, "Okay, am I done?"

The idea that he was being punished was upsetting to Emmett. For some kids that doesn't work.

FWIW, I'm not worried about Isaac either. He sounds like he knows what he wants and is pretty confident.

Emmett's essay was wonderful!

Grace walking is made of win!

yay for walking girl!