The Big Blue ball

Okay, so something happened this past week, that really got me to thinking about how other people impact our kids on a daily basis. Grandparents for instance... Let's run through this (of course hypothetical) scenerio...

You go to Toys R Us to look for something with your parents. Your child sees something that they really MUST have, but obviously do not need and proceed to throw a huge fit about not being able to get it...my motto with my kids is and always has been, "if you throw a fit, you are choosing NOT to get what you want..."...but you are with your parents, who have the opinion that all children should have anything and everything regardless of why. (I am not sure if your parents are that way, but mine sure are!) So, I really have to stand my ground and be the big, mean mommy often when these situations arise. So, you tell the child they cannot have the big blue ball and try to leave when your silly old father buys it and gives it to the child without you seeing...

*FIRST of all, the child really didn't want the ball--he or she wanted control of the situation and just got it...
*SECOND of all, my parents just made me look like a ninny in front of my child, so some MAJOR boundaries are going to have to be drawn!

Like I said, this is obviously hypothetical, but this is what I would have TRIED to do...
*told the child no, if it is really something they don't need or something I don't want them to have...OR they throw a HUGE fit when I insinuate they won't get it...
*Even children as young as 15 months of age can understand that they will not get rewarded for screaming like a crazy person (let's try to teach that as young as we can, right?)
*then, if my crazy father had proceeded to do it, I would have explained that he was going to really make the child sad when I had to take it away from her...and I would have...regardless--I had said no and "no means no" not "no until Grandpa says yes"
*then next time we went to Toys R Us, I would make a HUGE effort to go shopping and leave with nothing...but have a wonderful time there playing...I hate the assumption that everytime we go in somewhere we have to leave with something or "I'm in trouble"

FINALLY--a good nights rest again!

Okay, so a few months ago, with Easton-I broke every rule that I am a natzi about...I allowed him to crawl into our bed in the middle of the night and then to continue doing so for a while because I told myself that he first had the flu, and then he had bronchitis, and then he was recovering and then he had pneumonia for like 4 weeks...so when you add all of this up--we are talking about a total of about 2+ months that the child was coming in the middle of the night and getting into our bed. Now, I was always taking him back to his bed, but when he would protest a lot..I would feel bad for him--because remember he was sick?-and I would allow him when he would wake up the 8th time and then it would happen again...

SO..I mean, the NIGHT the tubes went in...I told Jason, no more! We lay down the law tonight and commit to 5 days of living poo poo, but then it will get better. Get this though, on top of all of that, Elle has decided that she is kind of scared to sleep alone and wanted to know if she could pull out Easton's trundle bed and sleep in his room with him... (which I did with my older brother until I was way too old and until he would just not allow it anymore--he also had a trundle)...so we devised a plan.

We added music in the room, we added Elle to his room, and we prayed! The first night...AWFUL! At least two hours to get him to sleep and at least 8 or 9 times of putting him back to bed screaming during the night. And, I kept having to remind Jason that we did this...

Night #2, 7-8 minutes to put him to bed, did not get out of the bed but woke up once and cried for 4-5 minutes.

Night #3, went straight down, no problem. Slept through the night! Thought I would DIE!!!

Night #4, cried when it was time to go down, but did go down within 1 minute or two. Slept until 5 and then we had to battle that out. He eventually went back down until 6. *We are still working on him sleeping until noon.. :)

But, I know better! I did this to him and I have to pay for my sins! So, remember there are consequences for all of your sins...never forget that!