We’ve been having issues with the kids recently.
CootieBoy is biting kids at school. He also very deliberately stomped on a kid’s hand – hard enough to draw blood. *sigh* Almost every day he comes home with a note about his bad behavior. I fear he’s gonna get booted from the daycare for acting out. Add in the temper tantrums and it’s getting very frustrating. We have glimpses of this amazing kid – this morning he was in SUCH a good mood and a pure joy to have around. A couple days ago he was a royal pill and spent the whole morning crying and hitting.
On the other hand, we’ve been having issues with CootieGirl’s use (or lack thereof) of the potty. She has also taken a step backwards and let’s just say that I’ve been doing a LOT of laundry in the past two weeks. She KNOWS she needs to use the potty, but something in her brain hasn’t been making the connection with feeling like she has to go potty and actually getting off the sofa and taking care of business in the bathroom. I keep telling her, “You are going to be four years old in one month – four year olds use the potty every time!” and she nods enthusiastically in response. Then two hours later I’m rinsing out her panties while trying not to breath through my nose.
With CootieBoy’s tantrums I’ve learned a new tactic that works. When he threw a tantrum the other day about not wanting to turn off the tv to go to school, he threw himself on the floor screaming, threw his sippy cup at me and started to kick at me. I turned off the tv and took away his milk, he then began screaming that he wanted the milk back.
“Are you going to be nice?” I asked him calmly.
“Noooooo!!!!” he screamed, with a half-hearted kick in my direction.
“Then no milk.” I waited about 10 seconds. “Are you going to be nice?”
“Noooooo!!!!” he screamed.
“Then no milk.” Another ten seconds. “Are you going to be nice?”
Same screaming response. We went through this about ten times, with me constantly saying “no nice, no milk.”
Finally, “Are you going to be nice?”
“Yes.” *hiccup*
“Okay, sit up. What do you need to say to me?”
He sits up, wiping his eyes. “I’m sorry, Mama.”
“Okay, here’s your milk.”
A quick hug and kiss and tra la la we were heading downstairs to enjoy the rest of the morning. I’m hoping that technique works in the future as a way to teach him that he only gets things when he’s nice, not when he’s mean. We’ll see.
I’ve disabled comments on this post because I don’t want to hear from the peanut gallery on this topic. I just needed to vent a bit.