Wednesday, July 23, 2008

BUSTED

This week would be the week of....um....discipline at our house.  Right now our children are being reminded on a daily, NO, hourly basis that we are the ones in charge.  WE ARE!  There will be no arguing, no whining, no crying to get their way.  No manipulating, no pouting, no bad attitudes when life doesn't go JUST how they'd like it to.  Sound familiar?  (PLEASE say "yes.")  
So while my eldest child spent some quality time in his room (after displaying some unacceptable behavior), he was given instructions on how he was to spend that time.  He was told that I would be up to talk to him in the allotted amount of time, and then at that point, he could let me know if he was ready to join the rest of the world or stay in the funkiness that he was in at the time.  (I'm happy to report that one hour after this episode began, he was GOLDEN the rest of the day.)

But back to the story.

When I got up to his room, he was lying on his bed with his little Nebraska Cornhuskers radio right next to him.  It wasn't on, but I suddenly realized he'd probably been listening to his radio instead of doing what I'd asked him to in his moment of solitary confinement, er, I mean, solitude.  

I said, "Cody, how long have you been listening to that radio?"

"Um..."

"Cody???  How long?"

"Well, for about this long."  (At this point, there is a dramatic gesture, his arms stretched way out beside him like a scene from "Guess How Much I Love You.")

"Uh-huh."  (At least he's honest.  I'm pausing at this point to try to figure out what to do next.)

"But Mom!  I turned it off right when I heard you coming up the stairs!"  (Looking at me hopefully, as if somehow, it will change the outcome.)

My mind suddenly re-reads all those discipline books filling the shelves in my brain, as if the answer just might be found on one of those pages.   

Nope.  No luck.

Thankfully, before I even have time to consider my options, Cody comes up with a reasonable solution for me.

"Hey....Mom?  I think I need more time up here."

Yeah.   YA THINK???

8 comments:

Jessica said...

YES!!! We have already had some very whiney moments and we've only been up about 10 minutes! AGGGGHHHHH!

I'm feeling your pain, sister!

Jody said...

God gives them all a little cute gene to save their lives in such situations. When Hannah was about 2 she liked to stand in a chair and swing the chandelier over the table. Of course, this was not acceptable. I could just picture her grabbing on and going for a ride. One day one of the other kids came to get me and told me she was swinging the chandelier. I come into the room as she dives under the coffe table (that particular house had a large living/dining combo). The light was crooked so if diving under the coffee table didn't give away her guilt there was evidence. As I am walking toward her, she started to come out from under the coffee table. I asked her if she had been playing with the light. She dives back under the coffee table. I pull her out by her leg. She looks me dead in the eye and as seriously as she could said, "You can spank me if you want to. I don't care." At her invitation she received said punishment. She looks at me again without shedding a tear and says, "Ha, ha, ha." Did you catch that she was only TWO!

Tonya said...

Oh I am so right there with you on letting the kids know for the 100th time that WE ARE in charge and not them. It's exhausting. Did you take the radio with you when you left him up there longer?

Barbie @ Mamaology said...

That sounds like one wise boy you're raising there! Your efforts have not been in vain!:)

Anonymous said...

Happi,

Were you walking out of Cody's room reciting 1 Corinthians 13 to yourself? Love is patient, love is kind..... It's good that you are hiding God's Word in your heart too huh?

You have to love Cody's sense of humor in the midst of it all. Now if we as Moms could just keep our sense of humor during those moments of disciplining, instructing and correcting our children!!!

Keep it up!!

Julie

Anonymous said...

Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this, my mama said.

Personally, I'd opt for the primal scream. Lock yourself in a closet and go for it. If I had closets around here that had enough room in 'em, I'd so being doing some of that myself these days. Oye.

Anonymous said...

OH yes we have days like that. I can handle the bad attitudes and whining, I feel like I know what to do in those situations. But it's the ones like the listening to the radio when they're supposed to be having a "come to Jesus" moment that throw me too. Lately I've been trying to treat them how God treats us. Which has been teaching me A LOT.

The Kempiak Party of Five said...

Whar a smart boy coming up with the need for more time. I want a time out too, with no noises!