Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Noise Pollution

I love watching Supernanny. It always makes me feel much better about my own
children. When I watch the five year
old kick and hit his Mother so hard that it makes her sob, I feel better about
my son’s tendency to kick, hit, and bite when he does not get his way. He’s never made me cry (at least not in
front of him). When I see the little
girl who dislikes her fish sticks so much that she throws her plate across the
room in a fit of anger, I feel better about my son’s nightly response to his
dinner plate: dramatic arm cross, deliberate thrusting of the bottom lip and a whiney serenade of phrases like, “I
don’t like this.” This behavior usually
continues for some time but, nine times out of ten, he follows our two-bite
rule and comes through at the last second with two feverish bites before the
egg timer goes off and he fails to get a token for “Eating” on his
responsibility chart. At least his
dinner stays on his plate. It rarely
ends up in his stomach (except for the two bites) but, if it isn’t going to
make it to his stomach, I’d prefer it not make it to the wall either.





Supernanny
In my opinion, the Supernanny's greatest assest is
her English origin. For some reason,
when parenting advice comes from a stout British woman it is extremely
convincing. Thanks to Jo Frost, we now
have a naughty mat in our house. It is
a brightly colored striped rug that sits in our hallway. I bought it a couple of years ago at a yard
sale and immediately had buyer’s remorse but I have, thankfully, put my $5 to
work.  Not only is the rug irrefutable
evidence of my ample abilities as an interior designer, but it is also a very
functional piece of room décor. Who
knew I could be so clever? This is
where my son serves his time-out sentences. It has worked fairly well so far and is a vast improvement from locking
him in his room (this still happens on the rare occasion that he refuses to
stay on the mat).





Thankfully, my son’s Room Wrecker phase seems to have
dissipated quite a bit. Granted, he has
found other ways to be destructive. He
is now an expert noise polluter. Because he is confined to the naughty mat and there are no loose objects
within his reach to propel, my son has decided to serenade me with vicious
sounding screams the entire duration of his time-out. It’s a joy, especially when it happens during dinner. We sit at the table attempting to convey an air of normalcy while my son screams, “Get me out of time out! It’s been 45 minutes! I WANT OUT NOW! Mommy!” He says it over
and over as if it is on some sort of tortuous loop. I guess I should be grateful for these dinner serenades. I definitely prefer noise pollution to holes
in the walls.



1 comment:

  1. Hello feel your pain!! Man, what is it w/ these boys at the dinner table. I do know he has a cold, not as hungry and we did eat a late lunch. THAT DOES NOT EXCUSE him for the whining attitude we get almost at every dinner time. He even helped some w/ dinner tonight, we had "hotdog rollups", I said the hotdogs had a shirt (the cheese) and a coat (the cresent roll) on. He watched them cook. Then once in his seat he began that "I don't like this, crossed armes, whining again" battle. I am trying what my dad suggested, say "ok once down, no more food till the morning" Dusty's family did the "if you want to get down, you have to eat" way. So, might try that way. We do try the 2 bite thing b/c he typically will request a beverage (juice or milk) and most times fills him up, so he has to eat 2 bites to get a bev.
    Anyway, maybe someone will give us some suggestions. I know our doctor said that his next door neighbor's 3 year old lived off chicken nuggets, macncheese, and hot dogs for 1 year and seemed healthy and growing etc....
    But, even if I fix what he might like, he still starts this whining stuff. Live and learn, go down the list as w/ everything.

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